In this report, ESCAP explores the future of urbanization in Asia and the Pacific, focusing on the dynamic shifts in the region’s urban landscape. It highlights the region’s demographic transformations, including population ageing, and the persistent challenges of urban poverty and inequality. The analysis covers urban areas of all sizes, …
The 2016 Rural Development Report focuses on inclusive rural transformation as a central element of the global efforts to eliminate poverty and hunger, and build inclusive and sustainable societies for all. It analyses global, regional and national pathways of rural transformation, and suggests four categories into which most countries and …
In a bid to protect green cover, the Delhi government on Monday decided to officially recognise 16 trees across the city as its "natural heritage". The decision was taken by Tourism and Culture Minister Kapil Mishra, who holds the interim charge of the Environment Ministry in the absence of Imran …
The paper aims at highlighting the need for developing wastewater reuse as a sector, identifying the interventions that could help in the development of this sector. It also identifies suitable structures that can help in mainstreaming the implementation of wastewater reuse projects in the country.
State of Nature reveals the destructive impact of intensive farming, urbanisation and climate change on plants, animals and habitats More than one in 10 of the UK’s wildlife speciesare threatened with extinction and the numbers of the nation’s most endangered creatures have plummeted by two-thirds since 1970, according to a …
Researchers at University of California San Diego's Big Pixel Initiative are using unique tools to map urban areas around the globe, potentially revolutionizing large-scale analysis of urbanization. Using Google Earth Engine, they developed and tested new machine-learning approaches that use high-resolution satellite data to detect and map settlements around the …
Water consumption by irrigation, domestic, industry to increase by 50%. Hyderabad: Given growing urbanisation and industrial growth, AP is set to face severe water crisis in the coming days. Even though AP has 40 rivers, 12 of them being inter-state, there is a gap between the demand and supply of …
NEW DELHI: The environment ministry wants the forest cover to be increased to 20% in National Capital Region (NCR) from the present 6%. It also wants the most polluting industries, which have been put under 'red' category, to be shifted out of populated areas. Sources said the ministry has also …
Rajasthan has become the first state in the country to approve sewage and waste water policy. The first of its kind policy was approved by the State Cabinet meeting presided by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in Jaipur. Under this policy, all district headquarters, heritage cities, and cities in the state …
There is an ongoing debate on whether the observed decadal variations in surface solar radiation, known as "dimming and brightening", are a global or just local phenomenon. We investigated this issue using a comprehensive set of long-term sunshine duration records from China, which experienced a rapid growth in urbanization during …
The loss of forest cover in the Krishna basin took place prior to 2000, which also led to change in water flow and higher sedimentation level. The loss of forest cover in the Krishna basin is the reason for perennial flooding in Karnataka during the monsoon, a recent study by …
The momentum of urbanization and its impacts are so massive that we must face up to this trend. In view of the existing cognitive, technical, economic and institutional path dependencies, a policy of business as usual – i.e. an unstructured, quasi-automatic urbanization – would lead to a non-sustainable ‘world cities …
C40 aims to support cities to “understand value and then make the case for individual climate actions based on the environmental, economic and social costs and benefits” of those actions. To support this overall aim, this report - a scoping study on co-benefits by the Economics of Green Cities Programme …
Foresters, geographers and ecologists have some good news. Although human population growth between 1992 and 2009 was 23 per cent, and the global economy grew by 153 per cent, the devastation to habitats, ecosystems and wilderness increased by only 9 per cent. But this single ray of good cheer is …
Experts from various fields have urged people to plant more trees and adopt anti-pollution measures after a US embassy report said there was an increase in the concentration of air pollution in many cities, including Delhi, even during monsoon which is considered the best season in terms of air quality. …
Question raised in Rajya Sabha on Conversion of census towns into statutory towns, 11/08/2016. As per Census, 2011, the total number of census towns in the country is 3892. State wise details are given in Annexure. Declaration of census towns into statutory towns is done by the respective state governments …
Karnataka will soon experiment with the hugely successful South African birth control technique to check the growing elephant population in the state, in the face of increasing human-elephant conflict. "We had recently submitted a proposal to the Karnataka government, seeking funds to take up the experiment, and it has been …
The results are contrary to the general notion that global warming or increased summer temperature is responsible for extreme summer monsoon rainfall events. A study carried out by researchers at IIT Bombay has found that extreme rainfall events over India do not have significant association with land surface air temperature …
A recent study by the Delhi University has revealed the presence of harmful chemicals and heavy metals in the city’s groundwater resources. If this groundwater is consumed, according to the study, it can lead to serious health problems in the nervous system, kidneys and the digestive tract. Titled Groundwater Environment …
The Water Report 2016 takes on the highly current, and sometimes parallel, issues of water and migration. While witnessing some of the largest refugee flows since the Second World War, water crises are highlighted as one of the most pressing global challenges. How these two issues are linked, if at …
The discourse on urban vulnerability over the last decade and a half has undergone substantial shifts prompted by differences in disciplinary orientations. This enables multiple framings and causal linkages, influencing the nature and scale of responses. This paper builds an understanding at the interface of cities and climate change, building …
