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City populations grow due to natural change, migration, and areas that are reclassified as part of a city. Because a time series of city boundaries was not available, most analyses ignore reclassification. This paper measures reclassification in a harmonized and transparent manner by applying a new harmonized definition of cities, towns, and rural areas, called the degree of urbanization, to gridded population data between 1980 and 2020. Ignoring reclassification would attribute city population growth equally to natural change and migration. Including the effects of reclassification reveals that two‐thirds of the growth is due to natural change, followed by reclassification (29 percent), and the remainder to migration (4 percent). This demonstrates the importance of accounting for reclassification. It also underlines that discouraging migration to cities will not significantly reduce city population growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we examine determinants of internal migration flows between the 21 provinces of Ecuador from 1982 to 2010. Using specifications based on the gravity model, we identified push and pull factors. We considered multilateral resistance to migration by using various monadic and dyadic fixed effects structures. The study confirmed the concentration of the population in the two provinces that contain the country's main cities. However, in recent years, this trend has weakened, to the extent that the provinces with the greatest influx of migrants are not necessarily the most populated. This indicates that growth has become more balanced throughout the territory, and that small and medium‐sized cities are increasingly important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal community-based supply, characterised by abstractions from surface water and shallow wells, is the main water supply source in the urban areas of developing nations. Formal sector supply has failed to extend their services to many urban areas yet the formal sector continues to view these community-based practices as small-scale, traditional and 'backward', and ones that must be eradicated from urban areas. While the formal sector continues to idealise the notion of the 'modern infrastructure ideal', based solely upon the expansion of piping networks, this paper argues against this ideal, instead presenting an opportunity for 'institutional bricolage' between the formal sector and the techniques that have arisen as a part of informal community-based water supply in developing nations. Based on interview and questionnaire data, this paper uses the city of Ndola, Zambia to demonstrate the resilience that has arisen within communities as a response to the failure of the formal sector, and hence the value of informal supply systems in the future water provisioning policies for developing cities. Informal supply is abundant in Ndola and local communities have taken their pre-existing rural customs and adapted these to provide water in the urban context; so that hand dug shallow wells now dominate supply. These practices have been successful in providing daily water, however, challenges remain, for example ensuring safe water quality with appropriate well protection. Herein lies the opportunity for the formal sector to become involved in informal community-based supply; instead of aiming to marginalise the residents of informal areas out of urban centres, the formal sector should adopt and better support the techniques used in informal areas, for example, through well protection education and provision of resources, to help in achieving the MDG for safe water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the first decade of the 21st century, the world's demographic patterns witnessed a fundamental change. For the first time in history, the number of people living in cities exceeded the number of those living in rural areas. This general trend towards urbanisation has forced policy-makers around the world to quickly find solutions to satisfy the growing demand for transportation services in fast-growing metropolitan areas-and, in particular, in mega-cities. Given the fact that many of these fast-growing metropolitan areas are located in developing countries with very limited financial resources for infrastructure development, economic approaches as well as flexible solutions are required. However, to forecast urban development over a time horizon of 10 years or more is difficult. Nevertheless, the gap between near future, which is considered 3-5 years, and the distant future, a time horizon that covers 15-20 years, requires special attention. Using the so called PRAVOKE method-a method for the analysis of complex networked systems-the author analyses various options for satisfying current and future transportation needs in fast-growing metropolitan areas. By taking the complex problem of satisfying urban transportation demand and breaking it into several sub-problems, this paper derives possible development paths, and describes the interlinkages between the expectations and needs of inhabitants in fast-growing metropolitan areas regarding transportation systems. Furthermore, it links some of the results with technological concepts that are already being applied, assessing their suitability for meeting transportation needs in fast-growing urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographers first identified aquaculture as an important field of study during the 1990s, pointing to a 'net deficit' in geographical knowledge about the activity. This paper examines how far geographers have come in bridging this knowledge deficit in the last 20 years. While increasing attention has focused on the political economy of export products consumed in the global North, 'everyday' geographies of aquaculture production and consumption in the global South have been neglected. We argue that paying greater attention to everyday aquaculture in the global South provides opportunities for geographers to engage with wider questions around development and change that extend far beyond aquaculture. By focusing on changing patterns of aquaculture production for Southern domestic markets, geographers can provide a counterpoint to Northern dominated agro-food studies by re-emphasising the importance of consumption, urbanisation and agrarian transitions from a more place-based perspective and, in doing so, support the development of theory that reflects Southern realties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global food system is coming under increasing strain in the face of urban population growth. The recent spike in global food prices (2007-08) provoked consumer protests, and raised questions about food sovereignty and how and where food will be produced. Concurrently, for the first time in history the majority of the global population is urban, with the bulk of urban growth occurring in smaller-tiered cities and urban peripheries, or 'peri-urban' areas of the developing world. This paper discusses the new emerging spaces that incorporate a mosaic of urban and rural worlds, and reviews the implications of these spaces for livelihoods and food security. We propose a modified livelihoods framework to evaluate the contexts in which food production persists within broader processes of landscape and livelihood transformation in peri-urban locations. Where and how food production persists are central questions for the future of food security in an urbanising world. Our proposed framework provides directions for future research and highlights the role of policy and planning in reconciling food production with urban growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the effect of the new international division of labor on urbanization in developing countries. Previous histories, particularly of insertion into the world economy, affect responses to the new order. Also, previous phases in the organization of the world economy, particularly those associated with import-substitution industrialization, have shaped the urban systems and urban social organization of developing countries in particular ways. By comparing the tendencies of the import-substituting period with those of the new international division of labor, contrasts are brought out in the patterns of migration, the shape of the urban system, labor markets, and in urban social organization. The overall change is likely to be an increasing divergence, both within developing countries and between them, in their urban organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]