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Urbanisation has caused unprecedented land use changes around urban settlements, leading to enormous socio-economic impacts on peri-urban residents. The spatial growth of urban settlements beyond designated boundaries into the urban fringes has resulted in the transformation of prime agricultural land into commercial and residential uses, effectively altering traditional land use patterns. The objective of this study was to establish the influence of proximity to urban settlements on peri-urban land use patterns. The study adopted a descriptive research design. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected from both primary and secondary data sources. Data were collected using questionnaires and focus group discussions from a sample of 384 respondents randomly selected from the target population. The data was analysed using Pearson product moment correlation and simple regression analysis techniques. The study established a statistically significant relationship between distance from Kimilili town’s central business district and peri-urban land use change (t = 17.544, p<0.05). This implied that a unit increase in distance from the CBD would result in a variation in land use activities by 46.9%. The study concluded that the proximity of households to Kimilili town has a profound influence on how they use their land. The findings of the study will be useful in addressing challenges associated with urban sprawl in small and medium towns and propose a framework and guide for land use planning in Kimilili’s peri-urban area and other small and medium towns in Kenya.

Urbanisation has caused unprecedented land use changes around urban settlements, leading to enormous socio-economic impacts on peri-urban residents. The spatial growth of urban settlements beyond designated boundaries into the urban fringes has resulted in the transformation of prime agricultural land into commercial and residential uses, effectively altering traditional land use patterns. The objective of this study was to establish the influence of proximity to urban settlements on peri-urban land use patterns. The study adopted a descriptive research design. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected from both primary and secondary data sources. Data were collected using questionnaires and focus group discussions from a sample of 384 respondents randomly selected from the target population. The data was analysed using Pearson product moment correlation and simple regression analysis techniques. The study established a statistically significant relationship between distance from Kimilili town’s central business district and peri-urban land use change (t = 17.544, p<0.05). This implied that a unit increase in distance from the CBD would result in a variation in land use activities by 46.9%. The study concluded that the proximity of households to Kimilili town has a profound influence on how they use their land. The findings of the study will be useful in addressing challenges associated with urban sprawl in small and medium towns and propose a framework and guide for land use planning in Kimilili’s peri-urban area and other small and medium towns in Kenya.

To investigate the micro level existing land use pattern, socio-economic status and differences between urban and rural land use pattern, the Dumuria upazila in Khulna district in Bangladesh has been selected. Total 340 samples have been taken through a questionnaire survey and the plot-to-plot survey was conducted on 2657 plots and about 267 acres to fulfill the objectives. This study demonstrates that land use pattern in both urban and rural areas was different due to various socio-economic factors. In urban areas, land use pattern was mainly dominated by residential or homestead use about 26% of land and a significant portion of land was occupied by the commercial and industrial use which is about 13% of the land. On contrary, rural area was dominated by wetlands and agricultural land (cropland and inter-culture) about 40% and 23% respectively. The study indicates that forest and woodland cover was relatively high in rural areas was about 15.39 acre out of 141 acre (11%) but it was only about 4% in urban areas. Moreover, this study reveals that the rural area was mostly covered with natural forest and woodland, on the contrary, urban area was mostly man-made. However, the findings of this study provide valuable information to support the sustainable development of urban and rural land use and planning processes and forecasting future possible land use changes on that locality.

To investigate the micro level existing land use pattern, socio-economic status and differences between urban and rural land use pattern, the Dumuria upazila in Khulna district in Bangladesh has been selected. Total 340 samples have been taken through a questionnaire survey and the plot-to-plot survey was conducted on 2657 plots and about 267 acres to fulfill the objectives. This study demonstrates that land use pattern in both urban and rural areas was different due to various socio-economic factors. In urban areas, land use pattern was mainly dominated by residential or homestead use about 26% of land and a significant portion of land was occupied by the commercial and industrial use which is about 13% of the land. On contrary, rural area was dominated by wetlands and agricultural land (cropland and inter-culture) about 40% and 23% respectively. The study indicates that forest and woodland cover was relatively high in rural areas was about 15.39 acre out of 141 acre (11%) but it was only about 4% in urban areas. Moreover, this study reveals that the rural area was mostly covered with natural forest and woodland, on the contrary, urban area was mostly man-made. However, the findings of this study provide valuable information to support the sustainable development of urban and rural land use and planning processes and forecasting future possible land use changes on that locality.

To investigate the micro level existing land use pattern, socio-economic status and differences between urban and rural land use pattern, the Dumuria upazila in Khulna district in Bangladesh has been selected. Total 340 samples have been taken through a questionnaire survey and the plot-to-plot survey was conducted on 2657 plots and about 267 acres to fulfill the objectives. This study demonstrates that land use pattern in both urban and rural areas was different due to various socio-economic factors. In urban areas, land use pattern was mainly dominated by residential or homestead use about 26% of land and a significant portion of land was occupied by the commercial and industrial use which is about 13% of the land. On contrary, rural area was dominated by wetlands and agricultural land (cropland and inter-culture) about 40% and 23% respectively. The study indicates that forest and woodland cover was relatively high in rural areas was about 15.39 acre out of 141 acre (11%) but it was only about 4% in urban areas. Moreover, this study reveals that the rural area was mostly covered with natural forest and woodland, on the contrary, urban area was mostly man-made. However, the findings of this study provide valuable information to support the sustainable development of urban and rural land use and planning processes and forecasting future possible land use changes on that locality.

Children's independent mobility (CIM) is considered as a determining criterion of child-friendly built environment (BE). Researchers have made a substantial effort to identify the characteristics of the BE that affect CIM and thereby to inform city policy to promote CIM. Although the findings from these studies are useful to inform context specific CIM policy, together they provide inconclusive results. This study made a first attempt to draw a generalised conclusion through a meta-analysis of existing knowledge base. The analysis was conducted using primary studies reporting 13 BE-CIM links and published between 1980 and 2016. Overall effect size (ES), directions, and consistency of each link were calculated, also stratified by contexts, using the reported results from the primary studies and based on a random effect model. The results show that four BE factors (dead-end street, % of residential land, % of commercial land, and residential location type) have a positive association with CIM; traffic volume has a neutral association; and the remaining eight factors (vehicular street width, road density, intersection density, major road proportion, land use mix, availability of recreational facilities, residential density, and distance to destination) have a negative association. Living in a dead end street was found to have the strongest positive ES (0.352), with moderate level of consistency across the primary studies. In contrast, land use mix has the strongest negative ES (− 0.212) but with the highest level of inconsistency. Both ESs and consistencies, however, vary between developing and developed country contexts. Diversity in contexts, research design, and measurement instruments across the primary studies contributed to the heterogeneous results. The findings of this research serve as a guide for practitioners and researcher alike to make an informed decision about the BE factors that consistently foster or hinder CIM in different contexts.

The natural occurrence of high dissolved Arsenic (As) in groundwater is quiet common and has been reported from almost entire globe. Nevertheless the scale of problem is most severe in several countries of South and South East Asia, notably in BDP (Bengal Delta Plain). Different As release mechanism has been put forward to explain As enrichment in groundwater. The groundwater As distribution and their relationship with land-use pattern suggest that As release is influenced by local conditions (e.g. sanitation, presence of surface water, agricultural practice). High rate of groundwater withdrawl can accelerate As mobilization by enhancing the transport of degradable organic matter with recharge water from the surface., Conference code: 175559; Export Date: 22 May 2017; Conference Paper; Funding details: Stu 169/37-1, BMZ, Bundesministerium für Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung; Funding details: Stu 169/37-1, DFG, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; Funding text: We acknowledge the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) (Stu 169/37-1) for providing the funding for this research. QC 20170531

Coastal areas face increasing pressures from land use change, developmental activities, shoreline erosion, biodiversity losses and natural calamities. This volume addresses these issues facilitating the integrated analysis of the sustainability of coastal zones. The contributors have tried to focus their respective works on the problems that need urgent attention relevant to present day issues. Coastal Zone Management and its sustainability strategy should safeguard ecological security of the coastal areas, avoid pollution as well as exploitation of living and non living aquatic resources, protecting also the agrarian community and avian population and other floral and faunal breeding grounds. Articles have been selected on the basis of sound scientific findings hoping that it will help in developing meaningful regulations for future sustainable coastal management zone., QC 20120214

This paper emphasizes the need of an improved consideration of the spatial distribution and functionality of forests in river basin management. The review of relevant papers has shown that forests, despite their frequent occurrence in temperate zones, play presently only a minor role in river basin management. In general, most of the studies highlight the positive effect of forests on water and nutrient fluxes in river basins. But hydrologists have also reported consistently flood events in or originating from forested areas. In context of the discussion on forest ecology and water quality it became obvious, that forest ecosystems can be sources depending on system properties, time and atmogenic pollution. The simulation of land use changes on water yield in forested river basins has been carried out in a great number of research projects, but mostly without considering the spatial distributed function of forests. The objective of our work is thus to improve the consideration of spatial distribution of forests in river basins and its effect on water yield and water quality. The most promising approaches in the future are either spatial explicit models or integrated models with both improved forest modules and landscape positioning. The efficiency of these models could be proved by using virtual catchments. As a first conceptual approach towards the base concept of a virtual catchment, we propose a five-units-model (FUM), representing cross-sections with typical land use sequences. The basic idea of our model is to identify major process units and to implement them in the river basin modeling and management.

Present paper deals with the forest status and land use  pattern at Singrauli. Singrauli region  once  had very dense dry tropical forest, which due to rapid industrialization in recent years got significantly reduced. It is concluded from the study that in general the area under forest and agriculture reduced tremendously while the area under mining has increased markedly.