Termites play important ecological roles in soil formation and nutrient cycling, but they also cause significant damage to crops and rural infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite their economic importance, information on farmers' perceptions, indigenous knowledge, and local termite management practices remains limited in many termite-prone areas of Ethiopia. Therefore, this study assessed farmers' perceptions of termite infestation, its impacts, and indigenous management practices in Dodota district, Southeast Ethiopia. A household questionnaire survey was conducted using 120 randomly selected households determined through Cochran's sampling formula at a 95% confidence level and 5% margin of error. Field data were collected from April to May 2025 through household interviews and focus group discussions. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 26 software. The study assessed farmers' knowledge of termite biology, perceptions of termite impacts, crop susceptibility, indigenous control practices, and the ecological importance of termites in the agricultural landscape. Most respondents were male (88.3%), married (95.8%), and within the middle-aged category of 34-60 years (65.8%). All farmers were aware of termites, and 91.7% correctly associated mound construction with termite activity. Farmers used three major criteria to identify different termite castes: body size (66.7%), body structure (16.7%), and feeding tunnels (10.0%). The major negative impacts reported by farmers included land consumption due to mound formation (43.3%), crop destruction (36.7%), and damage to homes (13.3%). Farmers also recognized several beneficial effects of termites, including improvement of soil porosity (22.5%), soil moisture retention (15.8%), and soil fertility (5.8%). Indigenous termite control practices included application of wood ash (6.7%), smoking termite mounds (13.3%), addition of organic matter (16.7%), destruction of mounds and removal of queens (6.7%), and promotion of natural predators (9.2%). Farmers possessed substantial indigenous knowledge of termite occurrence, impacts, and management practices. Integrating this knowledge with scientifically validated and environmentally sustainable approaches could improve termite management in smallholder farming systems. Future research should focus on evaluating indigenous practices and developing locally adaptable integrated termite management strategies.

ABSTRACT In post-socialist contexts, urban form is often expected to converge on compact or sprawling models. Uzbekistan, however, demonstrates divergent trajectories shaped by post-2016 reform and UNESCO heritage governance. Using multi-decadal GIS analysis (2005–2025) of Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva, this study maps urban expansion and applies indicators of compactness, fragmentation, land-use efficiency, and ring-growth orientation. Results identify reform-accelerated corridor expansion in Tashkent and heritage-constrained peri-urban growth in the UNESCO-listed cities. Across all cases, land consumption outpaces demographic change. The study demonstrates how low-cost spatial monitoring can support evidence-based planning and operationalise SDG 11.3 in data-scarce contexts.

ABSTRACT This study provides a spatio-temporal analysis of urbanization and land-use efficiency in Assam, India (2000–2025) using Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) datasets. Evaluating SDG 11.3.1, we integrated the Land Consumption to Population Growth Rate (LCRPGR) with supplementary metrics: Achieved Population Density in Expansion Areas (AAPDEA) and Marginal Land Consumption per New Inhabitant (MLCNI). Findings reveal severe spatial heterogeneity and rising land-use inefficiency. Built-up areas expanded significantly – Kamrup Rural grew from 55.44 to 81.53 km2 —while population growth decelerated. Consequently, peripheral districts experienced uncoordinated sprawl. Goalpara’s LCRPGR spiked from an efficient 0.76 (2000–2005) to a highly inefficient 5.37 (2020–2025). This sprawl is evidenced by precipitous density drops; Barpeta’s AAPDEA plummeted from 78,650 to 12,170 persons/km2, and Goalpara’s MLCNI reached an alarming 191 m2 per new resident. Conversely, the urban core, Kamrup Metropolitan, functioned efficiently, maintaining LCRPGR below 0.5 and consuming only 9 m2 of new land per added resident. These statistical disparities highlight a critical divergence between compact core development and fragmented peri-urban sprawl. To meet SDG 11.3 targets, this study emphasizes the urgent need for context-specific interventions, such as strict peri-urban growth boundaries, to halt inefficient land consumption

Urban sprawl is one of the major challenges facing urbanizing societies. This study quantifies the extent of urban sprawl in southern Poland's four most populous metropolitan areas, encompassing 164 municipalities, and assesses the effectiveness of spatial planning strategies aimed at limiting sprawl. The first phase of the research establishes comparative parameters for evaluating sprawl across these urban regions. To measure it, we apply the weighted urban proliferation (WUP) method, which comprises three indicators: the proportion of built-up land, the degree of spatial dispersion, and land consumption per capita. The most dispersed metropolitan areas are Rzeszów and Upper Silesia-Zagłębiowska and the most compact are Kraków and Wrocław. In the second phase, we analyze sprawl at the municipal level and examine how specific planning instruments—namely local spatial development plans (MPZPs) and decisions on land development and management conditions (WZs)—influence its occurrence. We correlate the WUP metrics for each municipality with the percentage of land covered by MPZPs in 2018 and the total number of WZs issued from 2009 to 2018. The analysis reveals diverse sprawl patterns, shaped by differing historical contexts, planning coverage (MPZPs), and intensity of WZ decisions. Notably, the number of WZs per square kilometer appears to exert a stronger impact on sprawl dynamics than the mere extent of MPZP coverage. Our findings indicate only weak to moderate correlations between the presence of MPZPs and sprawling development, suggesting the need for more targeted and effective anti-sprawl planning policies. This study highlights the critical role of well-designed spatial management tools for coping with urban expansion. • Weighted urban proliferation (WUP), integrating land use, dispersion, and population density, is applied in Poland. • The most dispersed metro areas are Rzeszów and Upper Silesia-Zagłębiowska and the most compact are Kraków and Wrocław. • Certain regions are more dispersed due to historical legacies, weak planning, and high intensity of land development. • Due to the low effectiveness of local spatial development plans, new tools should be used to limit urban sprawl. • The WUP method enables new empirical evidence of planning effectiveness in Polish cities.

Optimizing import patterns to reduce the environmental effects and risks of China’s grain imports

BackgroundRevealing inter-regional water-energy-carbon transfer driven by land use has great significance for realizing multiple objectives of resource collaborative optimization and carbon mitigation, yet land-use WEC accounting at the provincial scale and the efficiency of inter-regional WEC transfer driven by embodied land flow remain insufficiently explored in China. Accordingly, a theoretical framework for water-energy-carbon accounting and inter-regional transfer based on land use was established. Then the water and energy use and carbon emissions of cropland, forest land, grassland, water area, and construction land in 30 Chinese provinces were estimated and their spatial-temporal patterns were analyzed. The efficiency and spatial characteristics of inter-provincial water-energy-carbon transfer driven by embodied land flow were discussed.ResultsThe results showed that the land-use water consumption was relatively stable from 2005 to 2020, while land-use energy consumption and carbon emissions exhibited an increasing trend. Embodied land mainly flowed from underdeveloped areas to developed areas, and there was regional variability in the related water-energy-carbon transfer. The energy-carbon transfer patterns driven by embodied land flow were similar. Embodied land consumption was concentrated in cropland, forest land, and grassland. Water consumption driven by embodied land flow was primarily concentrated in cropland. Energy consumption and carbon emissions driven by embodied land flow were mainly concentrated in construction land. Generally, the embodied land flow-related water-energy-carbon transfer efficiency has improved, with the proportion of efficient transfer increasing by 2.03%, 2.08%, and 2.82%, respectively. Water transfer between different land use types was more efficient than energy-carbon transfer, and water-energy-carbon transfer associated with construction land was inefficient.ConclusionsWater-energy-carbon transfer driven by embodied land flow could alleviate resource and environmental pressures, while its efficiency could still be enhanced. Therefore, in the future, land resource allocation should be optimized based on regional coordination and integrated water-energy-carbon management to enhance the efficiency of cross-regional water-energy-carbon transfer, thereby achieving efficient resource utilization and environmental sustainability. Overall, this study provides quantitative evidence for the resource and environmental impacts of cross-regional land resource allocation and offers new insights for synergistic resource optimization from a remote coupling perspective.

Casablanca, Morocco’s most populous and economically dynamic metropolis, is undergoing rapid and unregulated expansion, leading to accelerated agricultural land artificialization, landscape fragmentation, and growing socio-environmental vulnerability in peri-urban territories. This study investigates the spatio-temporal dynamics of urban expansion within a 40 km buffer around the city, using multi-temporal Landsat imagery (2015–2025), a GIS-based framework, and supervised classification. Four land-cover classes were extracted (urban, vegetation, forest and water) enabling a diachronic comparison of land transformation processes. Two spatial indicators were mobilized to quantify urban dynamics: the Average Urban Expansion Rate (AUER) and the Urban Expansion Intensity Index (UEII). Results reveal that urban areas expanded by up to 387.9% in some communes, with 15 exceeding an AUER of 25% and 17 falling within the “very high development” category based on UEII thresholds. Land artificialization was most intense along southern and southeastern peripheries, notably Deroua, Tit Mellil, Had Soualem, and Sidi Moussa Ben Ali, resulting in severe fragmentation of agricultural land. The classification of communes into four profiles (fast, slow, consolidated, and stable) highlights varying degrees of territorial vulnerability. By integrating demographic trends (2014–2024), the study exposes mismatches between population growth and land consumption, underscoring the urgent need for integrated spatial diagnostics and governance reforms toward sustainable peri-urban land management.

Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC), caused by rapid urbanization, is crucial to mitigating the negative impacts of urban growth, threatening agricultural sustainability and ecological balance. This research was conducted on the Lower Turag River Basin in the northwestern region of Dhaka, Bangladesh and aims to quantify the built-up area changes along with population changes from 2001 to 2021, evaluating the nature of urban expansion by calculating the ratio between Land Consumption Rate and Population Growth Rate (LCRPGR) following the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) metadata used for the indicator 11.3.1. Here, satellite imagery, including Landsat 5, Landsat 8, and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data, was used in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, where the Random Forest algorithm was incorporated to classify LULC into five distinct categories. The high kappa values (>0.87) ensured the accuracy and the reliability of the classification. The results show that built-up areas increased by 139.39%, while the total population grew by 163.71% between 2001 and 2021, largely replacing agricultural land and natural vegetation. The urban expansion outpaced population growth, with a land consumption to population growth ratio of 1.775 for the period of 2001 to 2011 and 0.513 for the period of 2011 to 2021, indicating critical urban expansion. Besides, the LULC patterns found that the expansion occurred towards the north of the Turag basin with high growth of population, which increased the land consumption. Furthermore, the findings of this study will help policymakers and researchers to understand the spatio-temporal changes of urban expansion, population growth, and land consumption with a sustainable policy framework.

Declining birth rates are reshaping higher education across East Asia, accelerating the large-scale underutilization and, in some contexts, partial abandonment of university campus assets. Although adaptive reuse has been widely discussed, campus transformation is often framed primarily as a programmatic or policy problem, with limited attention to the inherited spatial logic embedded in campus morphology. This study revisits Le Corbusier’s concept of unlimited growth as a generative framework for campus transformation. Rather than treating it as a museum-specific historical typology, the research reinterprets unlimited growth as a scalable spatial logic defined by modular continuity, circulation hierarchy, and open-ended sequencing. To enhance reproducibility and operational clarity, the study formalizes a typo-morphological decoding protocol—modules, circulation, and growth sequence—and applies it through plan-, section-, and diagram-based analysis. Through comparative examination of three museum precedents—Sanskar Kendra Museum, the National Museum of Western Art (Tokyo), and the Chandigarh Museum and Art Gallery—the study extracts a set of transferable spatial mechanisms: modular increment, circulation-centered ordering, directional displacement, and fifth-façade ecological continuity. These mechanisms are then translated into an operational right-sizing model and tested through a design-operational demonstrator on a single anonymized Taiwanese campus experiencing demographic contraction. The findings indicate that unlimited growth functions not merely as a formal principle but as a spatial governance logic that supports phased consolidation, adaptive recomposition, and system-level coherence under long-term uncertainty. Importantly, this framework contributes to sustainability by reducing land consumption through spatial consolidation, minimizing unnecessary new construction, enabling adaptive reuse of existing campus assets, and improving long-term resource-use efficiency through phased right-sizing and ecological continuity. This study further advances a reproducible, mechanism-based methodological framework for institutional spatial transformation, providing a transferable approach for large-scale campus restructuring under conditions of long-term demographic and environmental uncertainty.

Spatial density plays a pivotal role in influencing land-use patterns and land consumption. To meet evolving industrial needs and maximize limited land resources, incorporating floor area ratio (FAR) optimization into urban planning is essential. Existing studies on floor area ratio largely focus on residential land, overlooking how industrial FAR varies across regions and sectors and what drives these differences. This study addresses this gap by analyzing newly supplied industrial land data from 90 counties in Zhejiang Province, China (2019-2023), using panel regression analysis. The findings reveal a steady FAR increase of 6.8% annually, with the highest levels in the northern coastal cities Hangzhou and Ningbo, a mid-range peak around Jinhua, and relatively lower but rising values toward the southern areas including Wenzhou. FAR is positively associated with land prices and government land supply, but negatively with per capita arable land. Significant regional and industrial disparities are observed, shaped by geography, land price and industry structure. These findings underscore the need for adaptive FAR policies that balance land efficiency and industrial compatibility. The study recommends stabilizing industrial land prices, supporting clustered small and micro enterprises with higher-density development, and selectively implementing the Industry's Going Upstairs (IGU) strategy based on structural load, production characteristics, and suitability for mixed-use.

ABSTRACT This article examines how a balance can be achieved between growing, congested large cities and shrinking smaller cities with rising vacancies. It argues, from the perspective of sustainable spatial development, that reusing existing vacant buildings and resources in shrinking cities is preferable to new construction and further land consumption. The contribution analyses location factors that encourage people to move to a peripheral, medium-sized city affected by shrinkage and demonstrates that such cities can serve as attractive alternatives to large cities due to available housing, spatial and social proximity, and a high quality of life.

Asymmetrical resource behaviors shape key leverage points for sustainability synergies and trade-offs across China’s food supply chain

Uncontrolled urban sprawl represents a significant challenge for many countries worldwide. This article analyzes discussions sparked by increased land consumption driven by urban sprawl in Timișoara’s peri-urban area, Romania. In this context, the objective is to identify the processes of transformation and dysfunction of spaces under the effect of peri-urban expansion. Methodologically, geospatial and satellite data were utilized to assess the evolutionary trend of peri-urbanization. Secondly, an evaluation of land-use types at the level of peri-urban sub-neighborhoods was conducted. Furthermore, an analysis of the online reactions of the inhabitants of these spaces was conducted. The results demonstrate differentiated urban growth patterns in the spatial expansion dynamics of peri-urban spaces, which have emerged along major communication axes and in response to the configuration of available land and proximity to the urban core of each locality. Based on LCR/PGR indicators, these patterns can be further categorized into compact and expansive growth models. Furthermore, deficiencies in fundamental infrastructure pose a significant challenge for a considerable proportion of the local population. The study provides authorities and urban planners with reflective analyses on how to better manage peri-urban development. The results of the study support coherent, preventive, and sustainable urban development to avoid replicating the dysfunctions observed in the studied areas in other peri-urban areas

Predicting urban expansion is crucial for rational urban planning and sustainable resource management. This study presents an integrated GeoAI (Geospatial Artificial Intelligence) approach to simulate future urban growth patterns in Karbala City, Iraq. A hybrid ANN-CA model, combining Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Cellular Automata (CA), was developed and calibrated within MATLAB using Landsat imagery (2015-2020). The simulation framework was further informed by principles of the Tietenberg model to account for resource utilization, population dynamics, and developmental pressures, ensuring a sustainability-oriented analysis of land consumption. Validation results, predicting the urban layout for 2025, show a substantial increase in urban area from 13% in 2015 to 24%, indicating intense urban expansion. This study demonstrates the ANN-CA model as a valuable GeoAI tool for urban geographers and planners. The findings provide critical insights for policymakers in Karbala to guide future urban expansion toward more orderly and sustainable development, aligning with the analytical perspectives of the Tietenberg model.

Urban expansion has intensified concerns regarding land use efficiency and sustainable urban development worldwide. Despite growing global application of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 11.3.1, comprehensive assessments within the United States (U.S.) remain limited. This study evaluates urban land use efficiency in the contiguous U.S. between 2000 and 2020 by examining the relationship between land consumption and population growth using the ‘Land Consumption Rate to Population Growth Rate’ (LCRPGR) framework. Urban land expansion and population change were derived from integrating impervious surface data with gridded population estimates, respectively, and the indicator was calculated for 2229 urban areas to evaluate temporal and regional patterns. Results show that urban land area increased by 23% over the study period, while population grew by 31%, indicating an overall shift toward denser urban development. The median LCRPGR declined from 0.84 during 2000–2010 to 0.63 during 2010–2020, reflecting improvements in land use efficiency, although notable regional disparities remain. Cluster analysis reveals distinct spatial growth patterns, with older metropolitan areas and western cities generally exhibiting more compact development. Findings demonstrate the applicability of SDG Indicator 11.3.1 for evaluating urban land use efficiency in a U.S. context and highlight the importance of coordinated spatial planning and policy measures to support sustainable urbanization.

ABSTRACT Urban metabolism (UM) offers a systems approach to the flows of resources in cities, but transportation, even with its high energy, land, and infrastructure requirements, has not been adequately conceptualised in this context. This study examines how transportation has been addressed in UM research and evaluates the added value of applying a UM lens to sustainable transport planning. A multi‐method evidence synthesis is employed, combining bibliometric analysis of 307 peer‐reviewed journal articles published between 1965 and 2024 (indexed in Scopus and Web of Science) with qualitative insights from 15 expert interviews involving planners, policymakers, consultants, and researchers. The bibliometric results reveal a fragmented and geographically concentrated, dominated by energy efficiency and emissions‐focused analyses, with limited attention to land use, governance, and behavioural dimensions. Expert interviews highlight land consumption, public space allocation, governance fragmentation, and behavioural inertia as critical resource challenges that are weakly reflected in the academic literature. Integrating both evidence streams, the study conceptualises urban transport as a socio‐technical metabolic subsystem and proposes an Urban Transport Metabolism Framework to support more integrated and policy‐relevant sustainable transport transitions.

Fossil fuels have been the main source of energy for decades. However, they are non-renewable resources that take millions of years to replenish from decomposed organic matter. As they are depleting at an alarming rate, a shift towards more sustainable fuels is gaining popularity. Biodiesel is emerging as a biodegradable and renewable energy source that serves as a promising alternative to conventional fuels. It addresses the challenges of greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring energy security. Among potential feedstocks, sunflower oil demonstrates unique advantages due to its high oil yield, favorable fatty acid composition, and availability. Despite extensive research on biodiesel, no comparative study has yet synthesized the four generations of biodiesel feedstocks while integrating optimization strategies with a particular focus on sunflower oil and sustainability trade-offs. This review aims to fill that gap by providing a comprehensive analysis of biodiesel production pathways, highlighting sunflower oil within a broader sustainability framework. The four generations are assessed based on feedstock potential, efficiency, and yield, while optimization processes for sunflower oil-based biodiesel are examined in terms of economic feasibility, limitations, and environmental impacts. The principal findings highlight the low free fatty acid composition of sunflower oil compared to other feedstocks, which makes it efficient for transesterification. Challenges such as production costs, land consumption, and food chain disruption are also discussed. Finally, innovative insights are presented for improving the viability of biodiesel through advanced technologies and supportive policies.

Floating homes are any structures that can float or submerge and travel on substantial distances while being completely sustainable and allowing its inhabitants to remain at sea for a prolonged period. Floating homes are sustainable alternative to traditional land-based housing for a variety of reasons. This paper sets out to establish that floating homes are more sustainable than traditional land-based homes due to their adaptability to rising sea levels, reduced land consumption, enhanced energy efficiency through passive cooling systems and innovative waste management practices.

ABSTRACT Water security remains a critical focus of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as water is fundamental to both human development and ecological sustainability. Effective urban water resource management relies heavily on the accurate prediction of current and future water demand, which is influenced by urban land use, population growth, and consumption behavior. This study assesses and forecasts domestic water demand in the Asansol Municipal Corporation (AMC) by integrating ward‐level land‐use analysis with estimates of agricultural and industrial water requirements. High‐resolution Google Earth imagery was used to classify land use across the AMC, while population projections were carried out using arithmetic, geometric, and incremental growth models. Domestic water demand estimations adhered to the IS 1172:1993 standards, while agricultural water needs were calculated using FAO's CROPWAT 8.0 and CLIMWAT 2.0 tools. The results indicate a growing imbalance between water demand and supply in the AMC. In the AMC, domestic water demand is steadily rising with population growth. Presently, the total supply from all sources is 45.58 MGD (16,636.7 MG/year) against a demand of 60.85 MGD (22,210.25 MG/year) (2011 census). This study projects domestic demand to reach 80.58 MGD (29,411.7 MG/year) by 2051, creating a gap of nearly 35 MGD (12,775 MG/year), excluding additional agricultural and industrial requirements. Among the sectors, industrial water consumption emerged as the highest (233,888 MG/year), followed by agricultural (56,726 MG/year) and domestic (22,210 MG/year) usage. With rapid urban expansion and population growth placing increasing pressure on local water resources, the study underscores the urgent need for improved water use efficiency and the exploration of alternative water sources to ensure long‐term water security in the region.

This paper explores the relationship between municipal finance, urban development, and environmental sustainability in Germany, with a specific focus on the potential for a circular economy to address persistent issues of land consumption. As centres of concentrated economic activity, urban areas are central to the achievement of sustainability goals, yet the German construction and housing sector operates largely within a linear system. Despite ambitious national targets, such as a goal to reduce land development to a net-zero increase by 2050, political objectives have not been met, and land consumption remains too high. The paper investigates whether institutional and structural barriers prevent municipalities from implementing effective sustainability measures. Using a two-part methodology, the research combines a narrative literature review on urban transformation, (post-)growth, and the circular economy with a quantitative data analysis. The data analysis utilises the INKAR database to examine land consumption, population density, tax revenues, and debt in German municipalities with the highest land consumption in 2022. The literature review suggests that the current political and financial systems in Germany create a systemic bias towards growth, as municipalities are incentivised to expand to generate income and compete for businesses and residents. While the data analysis finds that the correlation between financial pressure and land consumption is not statistically significant, indicating other factors may be at play, the findings of the literature analysis emphasise a conflict between municipal economic growth and environmental goals. The short-term financial gains of expansive development often come at the expense of long-term social and environmental costs. The paper reveals a research gap and addresses the lack of a clear explanation for why German municipalities, despite national policy, continue to consume land at an unsustainable rate, and provides new, counter-intuitive data on the role of municipal finance in this dynamic.