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The aquaculture expansion has made significant contributions to global food security, socio-economic development and, if implemented sustainably, can help preserve stable coastal environments. This study explicitly details the rapid expansion of largescale aquaculture growth across the Kolleru and Upputeru regions of South India. We developed a novel classification method for automated extraction of aquaculture ponds in the Kolleru zone using the Canny Edge-Otsu algorithm to segment and extract the ponds applied to SAR-VV images in Google Earth Engine. This approach enables the area estimation of dense aquaculture ponds are essential for monitoring and management purposes. The results indicated that this method could effectively map the aquaculture ponds and the overall accuracy achieved in 2020 for the Kolleru and Upputeru areas by 90.6% and 95.7%, respectively. The aquaculture maps of this study can help government organizations, resource managers, stakeholders, and decision-makers understand the dynamics and plan sustainable measures in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the void in developing analytical methods concerning to design urban configurations that could reduce fire risks, and, thus, could help in achieving sustainable goals. A novel algorithm is developed to generate alternative Urban Built Form (UBF) models that could be less susceptible to fire compared to the existing built-form. Fire susceptibility of a generated UBF is predicted using a developed linear regression model. The algorithm considers existing regulations to derive rules and develop scenarios that might be effective in building fire-resilient cities. The outcomes of the simulations showed a significant decrease in the fire susceptibility of the southern region of Mumbai city. Moreover, for a certain simulated scenario the predicted UBF could accommodate twice the current population while being less susceptible than the existing UBF. The proposed techniques and methods can act as a decision-making tool in taking pre-emptive planning measures to develop fire resilient cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]