Just Sustainability in the Global South: A Case Study of the Megacity of Dhaka

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, accommodates 18 million people and is one of the largest megacities in the world. A large share of its population is poor and lives in informal settlements which can be called slums. In addition to precarious and unhealthy living conditions, these slum dwellers lack formal land tenure rights and therefore are subject to government-supported evictions. Slum evictions due to various urban development pressures may bring short-term benefits to the urban real estate market but have adverse long-term effects on sustainability and livelihoods of the city’s poor residents. Using the conceptual lens of just sustainability (JS)—which facilitates an investigation of the normative and practical challenges of sustainability and environmental justice—the authors argue that urban development in Dhaka needs to ensure social justice and sustainability. While the geographic focus of this article is Dhaka, this study has direct relevance—in terms of policy and planning implications—for other cities in the Global South.

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Evolution and Collapse of Ejidos in Mexico—To What Extent Is Communal Land Used for Urban Development?

Land ◽

10.3390/land8100146 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (10) ◽

pp. 146 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Melissa Schumacher ◽

Pamela Durán-Díaz ◽

Anne Kristiina Kurjenoja ◽

Eduardo Gutiérrez-Juárez ◽

David A. González-Rivas

Keyword(s):

Rural Communities ◽

Urban Development ◽

Land Tenure ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Real Estate Market ◽

Google Earth ◽

Local Planning ◽

Private Sector Development ◽

Communal Land ◽

San Andres

The ejido system, based on communal land in Mexico, was transformed to private ownership due to neoliberal trends in the 1990s. Based on the theory of stakeholders being agents of change, this study aimed to describe the land policies that changed the ejido system into private development to show how land tenure change is shaping urban growth. To demonstrate this, municipalities of San Andrés Cholula and Santa Clara Ocoyucan were selected as case studies. Within this context, we evaluated how much ejido land is being urbanized due to real estate market forces and what type of urbanization model has been created. These two areas represent different development scales with different stakeholders—San Andrés Cholula, where ejidos were expropriated as part of a regional urban development plan and Santa Clara Ocoyucan, where ejidos and rural land were reached by private developers without local planning. To analyze both municipalities, historical satellite images from Google Earth were used with GRASS GIS 7.4 (Bonn, Germany) and corrected with QGIS 2.18 (Boston, MA, US). We found that privatization of ejidos fragmented and segregated the rural world for the construction of massive gated communities as an effect of a disturbing land tenure change that has occurred over the last 30 years. Hence, this research questions the roles of local authorities in permitting land use changes with no regulations or local planning. The resulting urbanization model is a private sector development that isolates rural communities in their own territories, for which we provide recommendations.

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Evolution and Collapse of Ejidos in Mexico: How Far is Communal Land Used for Urban Development?

10.20944/preprints201907.0302.v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Melissa Schumacher ◽

Pamela Durán-Díaz ◽

Anne Kristiina Kurjenoja ◽

Eduardo Gutiérrez-Juárez ◽

David A. González-Rivas

Keyword(s):

Rural Communities ◽

Urban Development ◽

Land Tenure ◽

Real Estate Market ◽

Google Earth ◽

Local Planning ◽

Private Sector Development ◽

Communal Land ◽

Rural World

The ejido system in Mexico based on communal land was transformed for private ownership due to neoliberal trends during 1990. This research describes the evolution of Mexican land policies that changed the ejido system into private development to answer why land tenure change is shaping urban growth. To demonstrate this, municipalities of San Andrés Cholula and Ocoyucan were selected as a case study. Within this context, we evaluated how much ejido land is being urbanized due to real estate market forces and what type of urbanization model is created. These two areas represent different development scales: S.A. Cholula where its ejidos were expropriated as part of a regional urban development plan; and Ocoyucan where its ejidos and rural land were reached by private developers without local planning. To analyze both municipalities, historical satellite images from Google Earth were used with GRASS GIS 7.4 and corrected with QGIS 2.18. We found that privatization of ejidos fragmented and segregated the rural world for the construction of massive gated-communities. Therefore, a disturbing land tenure change occurred during the last 30 years, hence this research questions the role of local authorities in permitting land use change without regulations or local planning. The resulting urbanization model is a private sector development that isolates rural communities in their own territories, for which we provide recommendations.

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Socioeconomic, Policy, and Planning Aspects of the 2004 Niigata Ken Chuetsu Earthquake

Earthquake Spectra ◽

10.1193/1.2172281 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 22 (1_suppl) ◽

pp. 163-175 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Robert B. Olshansky ◽

Itsuki Nakabayashi ◽

Kazuyoshi Ohnishi

Keyword(s):

Severely Injured ◽

Rural Settlements ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Temporary Housing ◽

Emergency Shelter ◽

Agricultural Economy ◽

Elderly Populations ◽

Earthquake Damages ◽

Policy And Planning

The Niigata Ken Chuetsu earthquake struck a mostly rural and mountainous part of Niigata prefecture in Japan. Forty-eight people died, and 551 were severely injured. Over 100,000 people required emergency shelter, and nearly 3,500 households are living in temporary housing. The prefecture government has estimated earthquake damages at 3 trillion yen (about $30 billion), and at least 1,000 workers lost their jobs. The primary issues involve lack of access to rural settlements because of landslides, effects on elderly populations, and the long-term effects on the agricultural economy and lifestyle of the region. Because of extensive landsliding, many communities will also have to face difficult decisions regarding possible relocation or abandonment of their village sites. Based on the experiences of other earthquakes, it is clear that this process will take many years to resolve, and that much of the region will be permanently changed by this earthquake.

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Estimating the role of urban development in environment quality: Evidence from G7 countries

Energy & Environment ◽

10.1177/0958305x21997980 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 0958305X2199798

Author(s):

Setareh Katircioglu

Keyword(s):

Urban Development ◽

Environmental Issues ◽

Kuznets Curve ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Negative Effects ◽

G7 Countries ◽

Group Of Seven ◽

Environment Quality

This study investigates the role of urbanization in carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in the case of the Group of Seven (G7) countries, except Germany. The conventional environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) was revised by augmenting and controlling for urbanization for this purpose. The results of this study confirm the long-term effects of urbanization on CO2 emission in the selected G7 countries. Only France and Italy seem to manage environmental issues when promoting urbanization; this is because urban development exerts negative effects on the climate levels in these two countries, while it generates positive impacts in the case of the other G7 countries. The inverted U-shaped and revised EKC is also successfully confirmed for only France and Italy among the others.

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A Review of Katarzyna Grabska, Marina de Regt, Nicoletta Del Franco, Adolescent Girls’ Migration in the Global South: Transitions into Adulthood. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, 272 pp.

Antropologicheskij forum ◽

10.31250/1815-8870-2020-16-44-186-191 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (44) ◽

pp. 186-191

Author(s):

Nikolay Steblin-Kamenskiy

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Adolescent Girls ◽

Global South ◽

Social Contexts ◽

Migration Studies ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Structural Forces ◽

The Way

The book investigates the migration of adolescent girls in the Global South and the interconnection between this migration and the girls’ transitions into adulthood. It contains a number of detailed cases of adolescent girls’ migration collected in Ethiopia, Sudan and Bangladesh. The review focuses on the way the authors approach migration studies. They criticize the negative discourse on migration and attempt to uncover the agency of adolescent migrants. Adolescents girls are presented not as victims subjected to structural forces but rather as active agents in complex social contexts. This allows the authors to present a more nuanced language to deal with the causes and long-term effects of migration in the Global South.

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Ovarian Dysfunction in Fetally Irradiated Beagles

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100080717 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 35 ◽

pp. 658-659

Author(s):

T. M. Seed ◽

M. H. Sanderson ◽

D. L. Gutzeit ◽

T. E. Fritz ◽

D. V. Tolle ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gamma Rays ◽

Low Dose ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Ovarian Dysfunction ◽

Dose Rates ◽

Highly Sensitive ◽

Microscopic Evaluation ◽

Ovarian Pathology ◽

Normal Offspring

The developing mammalian fetus is thought to be highly sensitive to ionizing radiation. However, dose, dose-rate relationships are not well established, especially the long term effects of protracted, low-dose exposure. A previous report (1) has indicated that bred beagle bitches exposed to daily doses of 5 to 35 R 60Co gamma rays throughout gestation can produce viable, seemingly normal offspring. Puppies irradiated in utero are distinguishable from controls only by their smaller size, dental abnormalities, and, in adulthood, by their inability to bear young.We report here our preliminary microscopic evaluation of ovarian pathology in young pups continuously irradiated throughout gestation at daily (22 h/day) dose rates of either 0.4, 1.0, 2.5, or 5.0 R/day of gamma rays from an attenuated 60Co source. Pups from non-irradiated bitches served as controls. Experimental animals were evaluated clinically and hematologically (control + 5.0 R/day pups) at regular intervals.

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Ultrastructural investigations of MDL 19,660-induced effects on the canine platelet and megakaryocyte

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100159412 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. 374-375

Author(s):

D.E. Loudy ◽

J. Sprinkle-Cavallo ◽

J.T. Yarrington ◽

F.Y. Thompson ◽

J.P. Gibson

Keyword(s):

Antidepressant Drug ◽

Beagle Dogs ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Short Term ◽

Platelet Counts ◽

Toxicological Studies ◽

Induced Aggregation ◽

Internal Architecture

Previous short term toxicological studies of one to two weeks duration have demonstrated that MDL 19,660 (5-(4-chlorophenyl)-2,4-dihydro-2,4-dimethyl-3Hl, 2,4-triazole-3-thione), an antidepressant drug, causes a dose-related thrombocytopenia in dogs. Platelet counts started to decline after two days of dosing with 30 mg/kg/day and continued to decrease to their lowest levels by 5-7 days. The loss in platelets was primarily of the small discoid subpopulation. In vitro studies have also indicated that MDL 19,660: does not spontaneously aggregate canine platelets and has moderate antiaggregating properties by inhibiting ADP-induced aggregation. The objectives of the present investigation of MDL 19,660 were to evaluate ultrastructurally long term effects on platelet internal architecture and changes in subpopulations of platelets and megakaryocytes.Nine male and nine female beagle dogs were divided equally into three groups and were administered orally 0, 15, or 30 mg/kg/day of MDL 19,660 for three months. Compared to a control platelet range of 353,000- 452,000/μl, a doserelated thrombocytopenia reached a maximum severity of an average of 135,000/μl for the 15 mg/kg/day dogs after two weeks and 81,000/μl for the 30 mg/kg/day dogs after one week.

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