Diversity of Mosquitoes Collected from the Southern Areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to assess the diversity of mosquitoes in various towns of the southern belt of KPK. METHODOLOGY: This was a descriptive study that was conducted in numerous towns of Western belt of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The study areas were Darra Adam Khel, District Kohat, District Karak, District Banu, District D.I. Khan and newly merged districts Mir Ali and Miranshah. From each study site, the samples were collected randomly. The sample collection was done through survey and area visits whereas; the identification process was done in a parasitology laboratory of Hayatabad-Peshawar. Sampling was done from June 2016 to May 2017. RESULTS: A total of 2150 adult mosquitoes were gathered and collected from 42 different locations of the southern belt of KPK and were identified. Based on their identification, 5 genera of the mosquitoes were recognized which were Culex, Anopheles, Psorophora, Aedes and Uranotenia. Culex was found to be most dominant in all the visited areas with a percentage of 12.65 in Miranshah followed by 11.81 in Mirali, 7.16 in Karak, 6.88 in Darra Adam Khel, 6.69 in D.I.Khan, 6.41 in Kohat and 5.11 in Bannu respectively. The results of our findings also revealed the presence of Culex genera in all the habitats and remained the dominant genera among the others followed by Anopheles and Psorophora. Aedes was found in the habitat of plants and grasses etc. whereas Uranotenia was found in marsh/swampy areas as well as in plants/grasses habitat only. CONCLUSION: The outcomes reveal that a climate shifting and extensive urbanization process is enforcing the diversity of mosquitos’ fauna in the southern belt of KPK.

Territorial and economic aspects of urbanization in Kazakhstan

The purpose of the work is to study the problems of territorial and economic development within the confines of regulated activation of urbanization processes in the Republic of Kazakhstan. To achieve it, authors analysed the statistical data on such indicators as population density, administrative-territorial division, according to which significant disproportions of territorial and economic development and settlement in the republic, the development of the regions of Kazakhstan were revealed. The authors studied the main provisions of regional policy, considered the main directions of state management of the formation of centers of urbanization with the decisive role of cities with a population of millions people in the optimization of regional economic systems. Research on this topic allowed the authors to conclude that the process of urbanization in Kazakhstan has a dynamic character and has not yet exhausted its potential, which gives reason to conclude that it is necessary to form new centers of urbanization and agglomerations. The article examines the main trends of the urbanization process at the present stage, namely, in economically developed countries, where urbanization has reached a sufficiently high level, the share of the urban population is growing at a slower pace, whereas in developing countries the urbanization process continues to grow in breadth and has a spontaneous, uncontrollable character. At the same time, the growth of population in cities far outstrips their economic development. Materials and research methods. When studying the territorial and economic features of urbanization in Kazakhstan, a complex of the following research methods were used: monographic, program-targeted, statistical analysis. In this work also used such theoretical research methods as comparisons and generalizations, scientific abstraction and synthesis.

Urban Retail Systems: Vulnerability, Resilience and Sustainability. Introduction to the Special Issue

Contemporary urbanization process threatens our environment, challenges the livability of cities, their ability to build localized competitive advantages, to attract investment, to create jobs and ensure the well-being of people in a sustainable development path [...]

Relationships between Peri-Urbanization Processes and Multi-Hazard Increases: Compared Diachronic Analysis in Basins of the Mediterranean Coast

This paper analyzes the relationships between the peri-urbanization process in the surroundings of cities and the increase in the synergistic dangers of flooding and water erosion. An analysis and an evaluation of the conditions causing the flooding in peri-urban basins are carried out, comparing the conditions before and after the peri-urbanization process. For this purpose, a diachronic analysis of the morphological and functional conditions of the territory that conditions flooding and associated dangers is provided. The conditions for the generation of runoff, the incorporation of solids into the flood flow, and the characteristics of urban planning are evaluated in 1956 (date before the peri-urbanization process) and 2010 (the peak of the urbanization process in the area) in order to analyze the changes in the land use model and their consequences on the increase in risk. The study is applied to four river basins (44 km2 in total) with varied land use models, in order to collect representative scenarios of the peri-urban coastal basins of the Spanish Mediterranean region. The results show that the risk factors that undergo the most significant changes are the runoff threshold, the vegetation cover, and the soil structure. It is concluded that peri-urbanization constitutes a territorial risk-causing process, and attention is drawn to the convenience of going beyond the sectoral approach in the study of hazards, coming to understand them as a multi-hazard process in which causes have a direct relationship with the underlying territorial model.

Assessing Land Cover and Ecological Quality Changes under the New-Type Urbanization from Multi-Source Remote Sensing

The traditional rapid urbanization process is the result of a strong focus on economic development, while its ecological and environmental aspects are less focused upon. The “new-type urbanization” (NTU) concept considers ecological conservation during the urbanization process. The different impacts of the two processes on regional ecological environment evolutions remain insufficiently investigated and still draw significant attention from urban planners and land managers when formulating proper land use policies. Thus, this study was designed to fill the gap by evaluating and comparing different effects of the traditional urbanization and NTU on urban land cover (LC) and ecological quality changes in the Jiangbei New Area, Nanjing, China. We first established a LC database using an object-oriented classification of multi-source high-resolution satellite images. Next, we quantified changes in ecological quality using the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) model. Subsequently, spatial auto-correlation analysis was conducted to detect the clustering trend of the changing ecological quality in the study area over time. The results showed that the overall accuracy of the LC maps was 90.75% in 2009, 91.75% in 2015, and 92.04% in 2019. The average RSEI values of the study area were 0.583, 0.559, and 0.579, respectively. The spatial auto-correlation analysis indicated a strong positive correlation between the ecological qualities. However, the spatial distribution changed slightly from a clustered trend to a more random and dispersed trend as the Moran’s I decreased. The observed changes are attributed to the strict implementation of ecological conservation and restoration policies by the local government in the NTU process, as well as an increased residents’ awareness of protecting natural resources, indicating that the traditional urbanization has a stronger negative disturbance on regional ecological conditions than NTU. The proposed evaluation method can be applied to other similar regions for sustainable urban management.

Urbanization Processes in the Indigenous Population of the Altai Republic: Stages, Factors, Prospects

This article explores the specifi city of the urbanization process in the native population of the Altai Republic and assesses its principal trends over the course of the years 1926–2020. The focus is on quantitative aspects such as the growth of urban settlements and their population. I look at the ways the urban network has developed in the Altai Mountains. The only urban administrative center shows a potential for agglomerative growth and continues to accumulate the rural population. Townships that had emerged during the Soviet period were unattractive for natives. Three stages in the urbanization process are described: 1926–1950s, 1960–1980s, and 1990 to the present. Over the entire period in question, urbanization was extensive, i.e. caused by migration from rural areas. At the fi rst stage, the key factor was political (collectivization). In the second stage, the factors were socio-cultural (attractiveness of urban lifestyle), economic (higher income and greater availability of jobs), and political (the abolition of “futureless” villages). The main factor at the third stage was socio-economic crisis. A conclusion is made that the potential for extensive urbanization in the native population of the Altai Republic has not yet been exhausted. The most attractive places to migrate are still the region’s capital and its suburbs. However, migration to other cities of Russia is likely to rise. A prediction is made that the role of intensive factors of urbanization in the indigenous population of the Altai Republic will increase.

Urban Densification and Social Sustainability: A Case Study of Dhaka

Dhaka is regarded as a thriving megacity of South Asia. The key challenges that the bustling hub is confronted with are land scarcity and the growing population. With limited land supply, the city is copping to accommodate its ever-growing population through two development strategies, namely densification and vertical expansion. Densification is regarded as an effective tool in guiding the urbanization process, while vertical expansion can be considered as a complementary part of this strategy. When it comes to application in an urban environment as a strategy, the subjective attributes of density need to be taken into consideration along with its objective aspects. As the concept of crowdedness differs generally among people belonging to different cultures, statuses, ethnicity, and geographic location, the livable density standard is also supposed to vary accordingly. The concept of habitable density for any community is profoundly related to the various aspects of social sustainability. Since densification has been taking place in Dhaka without any guidelines, the livability conditions with regards to the social sustainability of the city dwellers are largely compromised. Therefore, there is an urgent need to assess the sustainability of the residential areas of Dhaka, which have been developing as a by-product of the unguided densification process taking place over the recent decades.