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Urbanization and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa have undergone dramatic changes in recent decades with countries in sub-Saharan Africa seeking to industrialize their economies to boost economic growth. This study, with panel data from 37 sub-Saharan countries between the time period of 1995 and 2017, employs panel cointegration tests and pooled mean group ARDL (PMG-ARDL) techniques and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test to empirically examine the impact of urbanization, economic growth, energy consumption, and industrialization on carbon emissions. Results from the PMG estimator confirm no significant impact of urbanization on carbon emissions in both the long run and short run. One percent surge in energy consumption was found to have significantly caused 1.03% and 0.15% rise in carbon emissions in both long run and short run respectively, thereby reducing the environmental quality. Further findings revealed a significantly negative relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions as well as industrialization and carbon emissions. Additionally, our causality test shows a unidirectional relationship running from energy consumption to carbon emissions. Policymakers are advised to develop rural areas and plan urban centers, pay attention to sustainable energy sources and waste recycling, and educate the populace to improve environmental quality., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Industrialization and urbanization are critical paths to modernization for a country or region. The coordination of industrialization and urbanization fosters the development of a regional economy. In academic circles, this is usually measured by the IU ratio (ratio of labor industrialization rate to urbanization rate) and the NU ratio (ratio of non-agricultural employment rate to urbanization rate). However, these methods are inapplicable to large countries' inland areas. The traditional methods failed to explain the real situation and produced contradictory results. The IU ratio shows that industrialization lags behind urbanization, while the NU ratio shows that industrialization is ahead of urbanization. According to studies conducted in the Sichuan Province of China, through comparison with Jiangsu Province, it is found that the non-agricultural employment growth is not dependent on the development of local industrialization, and rural-urban migration is not entirely dependent on the evolution of the non-agricultural employment rate. Other factors that promote urbanization, such as the country's capital policies and funds for migrant labor force transfer, should also be considered. This research attempts to improve the traditional methods for measuring the degree of urbanization and industrialization synergy in inland areas. The new empirical approach can effectively identify the critical characteristics of urbanization in inland provinces, such as the development of non-agricultural employment with external assistance and urban migrants "unrelated to employment opportunities". Based on these key characteristics, it can provide the basis for local urbanization policy formulation.

This study investigates the influence of globalization, industrialization, urbanization, and financial development on energy demand and environmental quality. The current study uses annual data from 92 Belt and Road Initiative countries over the sample period 1995 to 2018. After the confirmation of cross-sectional dependency and cointegration among the variables, we applied System Generalized Method of Moment, Driscoll and Karry approach, and Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test to check the long-run relationship and direction of causality, respectively. The results reveal that globalization, financial development, industrialization, urbanization, and economic growth significantly increase the energy demand and CO 2 emissions over the sample period. In addition, the granger causality test confirms a one-way causal relationship between financial development and CO 2 emissions, GDP per capita and CO 2 emissions, and globalization and energy demand. Moreover, there is a two-way causal relationship between urbanization and energy demand and financial development and GDP per capita. Based on these findings, number of suitable policy recommendations presented in the prospective of Belt and Road Initiative countries., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Developing economies are an important engine of world economic growth. However, ensuring the quality of environmental assets is maintained amid rapid economic change remains a major challenge for most developing countries. Using the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach and the heterogeneous causality test, this study analyzes the combined effects of energy usage, industrialization, gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and urbanization on CO 2 emissions for 23 developing countries across the 1995 to 2018 period. From our analysis, the long-run results reveal that a 1% increase in energy use, economic growth, industrialization, and urbanization increases CO 2 emissions by 0.23%, 0.17%, 0.54%, and 2.32%, respectively. Moreover, our model's short- to long-term equilibriums are adjusted at a yearly rate of 0.19%. Finally, to verify the panel ARDL long-run results, robustness tests were carried out using the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) approaches. Our results confirm that in the case of developing countries, CO 2 emissions are primarily influenced by GDP growth, energy use, industrialization, and urbanization. Furthermore, the panel causality analysis identified a bidirectional causal relationship between energy use, GDP growth, urbanization, industrialization, and CO 2 emissions. While these results can play an instrumental role in formulating CO 2 emission policies among our selected countries, our research can also assist policy makers and stakeholders in other developing economies implement important policy initiatives. These include, tax incentives and infrastructural developments that nurture environmentally friendly industrialization, deploy low-carbon technologies, promote sustainable forms of urbanization and urban planning, while also facilitating increases in both the investment in and adoption of renewable energy platforms. The establishment of such a comprehensive policy agenda can help emerging economies achieve strong and environmentally sustainable GDP growth over the long-term., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A rapid process of industrialization, on the one hand, transformed the economies from agrarian to industrial societies to improve the living standards and welfare of people. On the other hand, the urbanized and industrialized economies have posed challenging threats to environmental sustainability. The query at hand is whether the growing environmental emissions are driven by industrialization and urbanization or not. This research aims to empirically examine the combined role of industrialization and urbanization in achieving carbon neutrality in Pakistan by considering foreign direct investment and economic growth as control variables in the model. The core empirical results are the following: firstly, industrialization and economic growth exhibit negative but statistically insignificant impacts on CO 2 emissions, imparting a neutral role in determining the environmental degradation in Pakistan. Secondly, urbanization and foreign direct investment disclose positive and statistically significant (at 1% level of significance) impacts on CO 2 emissions, manifesting an environmental degradation driving impact in the country. Thirdly, given the slope coefficients of urbanization and foreign direct investment (0.058 and 0.035), urbanization proved to be a stronger driver than foreign direct investment. Finally, foreign direct investment is revealed to make the Pakistani economy a "Pollution Haven" for the foreign enterprises in the country. Based on empirical results, none of the variables predicted the support for carbon neutrality in Pakistan., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Objective: The present study aims to investigate whether any secular change in growth occurred among the urban populations during the Edo period (1603-1867). During this time, the preconditions for industrialization were established through rapid urbanization, population increase, and economic development., Materials: Ninety subadult and 189 adult skeletal remains were recovered from eight Edo-period burial sites in Tokyo were examined., Methods: Maximum femoral lengths were measured and compared between the early and late Edo periods., Results: While subadults of the late Edo period-especially of higher status-tended to have longer femoral lengths, the adult males tended to have slightly shorter femoral lengths. No clear difference was found among adult females., Conclusions: There was no clear or consistent secular change in growth patterns or in adult stature. The impact of social and economic transformations in 17th-century Japan on growth and on general health status remains unclear., Significance: This is the first study to examine the impact of social changes on growth immediately before the industrialization of Japan. It will be helpfull to understand the complex relationship between human growth and social changes., Limitations: Changes in growth patterns may have been obscured by the small sample size, errors in estimating age and femoral lengths, temporary changes in growth in the late Edo period, or catch-up growth., Suggestions for Further Research: Re-examining with a larger sample, introducing more precise dating of burials and more precise age estimation methods, and examining multiple physiological stress indicators are necessary., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: The present paper aims to examine the concept of "plant blindness" in the context of current sustainability debates. "Plant blindness" was the term introduced in 1999 by the botanists and educators James H Wandersee and Elisabeth E Schussler to describe what they saw as a pervasive insensitivity to the green environment and a general neglect of plants on the part of biology education. Design/methodology/approach: The fundamental importance of plants for life on Earth and the socio-educational challenges of redacted awareness of this importance are considered. Also, the diverse physiological, psychological, philosophical, cultural and geopolitical origins and consequences of indifference to plants in relation to aspects of sustainability agendas are examined with special reference to education. Findings: An examination of the outcomes of a range of research and practical initiatives reveals how multidisciplinary approaches to education and public engagement have the potential to address the challenge of "plant blindness". The need for these opportunities to be reflected in curriculums is not widely appreciated, and the socio-economic forces of resistance to confronting plant neglect continue to be formidable. Originality/value: Plant blindness is a relatively new field of research, and the full breadth of its implications are only gradually becoming apparent. If the present paper contributes to positioning plants as an essential element in sustainability education and practice, it will have met its objective.

This study explores the interconnections among industrialization, urbanization, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and carbon emissions (CO2e) across 31 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries from 1998 to 2020. In addition, it analyzes how education moderates these relationships. This study employs CO2e as the explained variable, while industrialization, urbanization, and FDI serve as explanatory variables, with education as a moderator. This research utilized Hierarchical regression analysis to examine how education moderates the associations among industrialization, urbanization, FDI, and CO2e. Additionally, to validate the reliability of our results, we utilized the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The results of this study imply that CO2e levels increase with the level of industrialization and urbanization. The pursuit of education also contributed to the increase in CO2e. Moreover, education and industrialization have detrimental effects on CO2e. To fill this gap in the existing literature, this study investigates the relationship between industrialization, urbanization, FDI, and CO2e, a domain with scarce empirical investigations. Furthermore, this study contributes uniquely to the literature by investigating the moderating influence of education on the relationships between independent variables and CO2e. This original aspect of this research aims to enhance our understanding of the complex connections between these factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the adoption of more financial inclusion (FI), energy utilization with sustainability became a challenge for world economies. Our research examines whether FI symmetrically and asymmetrically affects environmental sustainability in Pakistan. Six proxies are indexed for the FI data through principal component analysis (PCA). In the present research explanatory variables are, energy usage, industrialization, urbanization, and human capital during from 1975 to 2018. Our study engaged the Stochastic Impact by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology Approach (STIRPAT). Additionally, the econometric strategy is adopted for the empirical analysis to acquire the symmetric and asymmetric outcomes. The empirical result validates the asymmetric association of FI and carbon dioxide (CO2) emanations in short and long lags. Besides, fossil energy utilization, industrialization, and urbanization smoothen the path of environmental pollution. However, human capital significantly aids in reducing carbon pollution in the short and long terms. The policy makers can practically implement the research to utilize FI effectively to improve environmental sustainability and develop policies that discourage fossil energy utilization. Moreover, we pointed out the alarming situation of dealing with harmful emissions from urbanization and industrialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization is occurring at an unprecedented rate in developing countries like Ethiopia, especially with the rapid growth of industrialization. However, this urbanization and industrial development surge puts immense pressure on preparing and implementing city spatial plans. Urban spatial planning plays a crucial role in shaping the development of cities, aiming to create livable and sustainable urban development. The plan-making process and its subsequent implementation often encounter challenges that hinder the realization of planned objectives. Galan and Dukem, cities near Addis Ababa's capital, have seen substantial industrial investment in recent decades. This article explores the challenges associated with urban spatial planning and industrial development while proposing alternative approaches. The paper relies on information gathered from primary and secondary sources, including expert surveys and key informants' interviews. The research highlights that industrial developments have led to significant and uncontrolled changes in urban land use and urbanization in the study areas. Due to the lack of clear planning guidelines and institutional capacity, the study cities are experiencing haphazard development without effective urban spatial plans. Proximity to Addis Ababa has driven the urbanization process through increased investments. The article contends that effective management of urbanization and industrialization can create enjoyable living conditions and foster job growth. Macroeconomic policies, including industrial policies, should pay attention to spatial elements and prevent policy-making processes that are "space-blind". This, however, requires clairvoyance and a high level of expertise, integrating inputs from advocacy planning and community participation to bridge gaps and ensure effective urban spatial plans and industrialization processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrialization is a key element for economic growth in both developed and undeveloped countries. Due to globalization, the cause-effect between industrialization, economic growth and urbanization are changing. This study investigates the relationship between economic expansion, urbanization, and industrialization in Kenya using a quantitative methodology. Using World Bank economic indicator parameters, it focuses on understanding the complex interrelationships between these factors. Vector Autoregression (VAR) modeling is used to analyze the relationships between GDP, urbanization, and industrialization between 1990 and 2018. The Granger causality test is used to determine the causal linkages between GDP, urbanization, and industrialization. Results show that urbanization is increasing steadily across Kenya, with a high population in central, western, Rift valley, and coastal regions. The availability of agricultural land influences urbanization, with a significant positive relationship between the three parameters. The Granger causality test shows a unidirectional relationship between GDP, urbanization, and industrialization. A minimum of 20% is considered as the benchmark for urbanization to reduce both GDP and industrialization. Unplanned and rapid urbanization, accompanied by ecologically unfavorable industrialization schemes, threatens Kenya's biodiversity. The study provides insight into the interconnection between the three pillars of the economy and the statistical models developed are useful in forecasting future trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study explores the interconnections among industrialization, urbanization, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and carbon emissions (CO2e) across 31 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries from 1998 to 2020. In addition, it analyzes how education moderates these relationships. This study employs CO2e as the explained variable, while industrialization, urbanization, and FDI serve as explanatory variables, with education as a moderator. This research utilized Hierarchical regression analysis to examine how education moderates the associations among industrialization, urbanization, FDI, and CO2e. Additionally, to validate the reliability of our results, we utilized the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The results of this study imply that CO2e levels increase with the level of industrialization and urbanization. The pursuit of education also contributed to the increase in CO2e. Moreover, education and industrialization have detrimental effects on CO2e. To fill this gap in the existing literature, this study investigates the relationship between industrialization, urbanization, FDI, and CO2e, a domain with scarce empirical investigations. Furthermore, this study contributes uniquely to the literature by investigating the moderating influence of education on the relationships between independent variables and CO2e. This original aspect of this research aims to enhance our understanding of the complex connections between these factors.

In this paper, the STIRPAT model was developed to study the role of financial development in urban low-carbon economic transformation. The statistical analysis used data from 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2009 to 2019. The results show that: (1) there is a positive U-shaped nonlinear relationship between financial development and urban low-carbon economic transformation. (2) Financial development not only directly affects the transformation of the low-carbon economy, but also indirectly affects it through three transmission channels: environmental regulation, industrial structure, and urbanization. (3) The financial development itself and the level of urbanization have a threshold effect on the transformation of the low-carbon economy. Under the threshold effect of environmental regulation and industrial structure, the role of financial development in the transformation of low-carbon economies presents a process of 'first decrease and then increase'. Therefore, improving the intensity of environmental regulation, implementing differentiated financial and industrial development policies, and controlling the urbanization process are effective measures to promote the transformation of low-carbon economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrialization and urbanization are significant facets of modernization. The asynchronous development of the two is closely related to the agglomeration of producer services. This paper constructed an asynchrony index to describe the development gap between industrialization and urbanization. Various spatial weight matrices were introduced to test the spatial autocorrelation of the asynchrony index. Applying spatial econometric models, we explored the impact of agglomeration of producer services on the asynchrony index from two aspects: diversified agglomeration (DA) and specialized agglomeration (SA). The following conclusions are drawn from the empirical findings, which are based on data from 31 Chinese provinces between 2008 and 2019: (1) the asynchrony of industrialization and urbanization exhibits the spatial autocorrelation increasing over time; (2) SA exacerbates the asynchrony, while DA alleviates the asynchrony; (3) SA exerts greater impacts in highly industrialized and urbanized regions, while DA exerts greater effects in lowly industrialized and urbanized regions; and (4) agricultural dependence and infrastructure level weaken the impacts of SA and strengthen the impacts of DA. Income level weakens the impacts of both SA and DA. The results of this study provide a reference for policymakers to adjust the industrial layout in a targeted manner to regulate the asynchronous nature of modernization development. Peace and development are the themes of the world today. Most developing countries are experiencing or about to experience industrialization and urbanization. The world reality indicates that the two are not always synchronized in countries due to resource and cultural differences. Producer services not only improve agricultural and industrial production efficiency but also bring population agglomeration effects like other industries. In the era of informatization, the producer services exert a profound impact on industrialization and urbanization through two agglomeration modes. This technical paper quantifies the asynchrony between industrialization and urbanization using data from 31 provinces in China and verifies the opposite effects of two agglomeration modes on asynchrony. In cities with different levels of industrialization and urbanization, cities with higher or lower agricultural dependence, and cities with higher or lower infrastructure levels, the impact direction of the two agglomeration modes shows stability, while the magnitude varies. Cities with higher per capita income tend to develop into consumer cities, where industrialization should lag behind urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization is a global phenomenon and is influenced by complex processes in the society. In Kazakhstan, the formation of towns was based on the implementation of a policy of the Russian Empire, which put in motion the processes of urbanization there. This policy was later continued in the Soviet times too. It began with the discovery of rich deposits of minerals on the sites of small Kazakh vernacular settlements, and their extraction. Gradually, these settlements turned into towns: infrastructure was built; population increased. Invariably, the living conditions of people engaged in industrial production also improved. However, at the end of the 20th century, these small towns are still experiencing a deep social and economic crisis. Although the modern independent Kazakhstan has begun to address them, this issue is still urgent. This paper examines the process of the formation of urban vernacular settlements in Kazakhstan with a case study of East Kazakhstan. The research employs archival documents containing objective information. It uses comparative historical analysis to identify the causes and reveal the processes of transformation of vernacular settlements into towns. It concludes that the emergence of some settlements in East Kazakhstan has been associated with the colonial policy of the Russian Empire. The towns are an important and inevitable part of urbanization. It is easier for the migrants and the villagers to adapt to the towns. This is because towns lack tensions and survival problems of the big cities, but retain all of their symbols and infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the impact of economic modernization on carbon balance is an essential endeavor to achieve carbon neutrality and combat climate change. However, the spatial impact of economic modernization on carbon balance remains ambiguous. Therefore, this study aims to explore the spatial spillover effects of agricultural modernization, industrialization, and urbanization on carbon balance during the economic modernization process in China, taking 30 provinces and cities in China as examples from 2010 to 2021. This study utilizes the spatial Durbin model to derive the following results: In the past decade, the carbon balance ratio has shown a fluctuating and decreasing dynamic evolution trend. There is an increase in regions with serious carbon deficits. Further investigation into the spatial spillover effect of carbon balance unveils that for every 1% increase in the carbon balance ratio of a province, neighboring provinces experience a decrease of 0.833%. Additionally, the spatial spillover effects of the three modernizations in China on the carbon balance ratio behave differently. Agricultural modernization and urbanization demonstrate negative spatial spillover effects on the carbon balance in neighboring regions, while industrialization exerts a significant positive spatial spillover effect on the carbon balance of neighboring regions. Regarding control variables, the level of innovation solely contributes to local carbon balance realization without generating a trickle-down effect, whereas infrastructure development operates inversely. At the same time, there are differences in the spatial effects of agricultural modernization and industrialization on the carbon balance between the eastern region and the central and western regions. The study underscores the importance of economic modernization and development processes focusing on fostering synergistic growth between economic and environmental benefits within both local and neighboring areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial workers in Saudi Arabia constitute about one million workers, which is about 5% of the workforce in general in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this study dealt with the spatial analysis of industrial workers and its distribution in administrative regions and in various industrial sectors and aimed to analyze the factors affecting its distribution. spatial, and its developmental role in industry, and in the gross domestic product in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The results showed the concentration of industrial workers in the regions: Riyadh, the Eastern Province, and Mecca, and emphasized the role of population, housing, industrial facilities, capital, and the rate of urbanization. And the average income in the distribution of industrial workers. It also showed that there is a statistically significant relationship between the role of industrial workers in industrial development and their contribution to the gross domestic product. The study recommended more attention to study variables such as road lengths and capital. In order to develop industrial workers, as well as direct industrial workers to engage in specific industrial activities, or specific areas; With the aim of achieving comprehensive development and self-sufficiency in industrial products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global climate change (GCC) is defined as a process that is considered the most crucial problem of the current century and will affect all living things and ecosystems in the world. In order to specify the potential impacts of this phenomenon, which does not seem possible to stop, it is necessary first to predict the change in climate types. Therefore, the current study aimed to define the shift of climate classifications (according to De Martonne, Erinç, and Emberger climate category) in 2040, 2060, 2080, and 2100 for Bursa, one of the largest cities in Türkiye, according to the SSPs 245 and SSPs585 scenarios, and compare it with its current situation. As a result, it was determined that the climate types in Bursa province would change significantly and primarily manifest as a shift into arid climate types. It is recommended to take precautions on a sectoral basis to avoid the devastating effects of GCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution is a severe problem in the modern world. Urbanization, industrialization, and traffic emit air pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrous oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons (HCs), and particulate matter into the environment. Plants can absorb air pollutants through stomata. They adversely affect the various metabolic and physiological processes of plant species. This review describes the impact of air pollution on plant health, morphologically, physiologically, and genetically, and the tolerance ability of plants located along roadside areas. Many morphological effects, like chlorosis, necrosis, leaf area, stomatal clogging, plant productivity, leaf falling, and reduction in flower yield, are observed due to the influence of air pollution. Air pollutants also damage the DNA and affect the biochemicals of the plants, as well as pH, relative water content (RWC), simple sugar, ascorbic acid (AA), total chlorophyll content (TCH), proline, and polyamines. Some plants located under pollution stress can mitigate air pollution. Plants with higher APTI values are more tolerant of air pollution, while those with the lowest APTI values can be used as an indicator of the rate of air pollution. There is much morphological, biochemical, and DNA damage noted in this review. Different strategies can be used to diagnose the effects of air pollution in the future and develop green belts to mitigate air pollution in pollution-stressed areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the intensifying threat to public health caused by increased CO2 emissions from energy and modern urbanization. In this connection, we focused on SAARC countries from 1990 to 2022. The study explores the dynamic association among urbanization, CO2 emissions, renewable energy, and key health indicators, namely life expectancy and infant mortality. It offers nuanced insights by highlighting the requirement for sustainable policies to meet health challenges associated with CO2 emissions and urban development in SAARC economies. To achieve the study objectives, the authors utilized panel auto regressive distributed lag for assessing short‐term and long‐run effects, and the method of moments quantile regressions to check these effects across different quantiles. The empirical results underscore the positive impact of renewable energy, urbanization, GDP, and industrialization on life expectancy. Conversely, CO2 emissions exhibit a detrimental impact on life expectancy, leading towards numerous diseases in both the short and long term. Notably, in the case of infant mortality, the study discloses that renewable energy, urbanization, GDP, and industrialization negatively affect infant mortality, while CO2 emissions positively impact infant mortality in both short and long‐run scenarios. Fully modified ordinary least squares and dynamic ordinary least squares further fortified our findings, supporting the results derived from panel auto regressive distributed lag and method of moments quantile regressions. The study's policy implications highlight the imperative for governments and policymakers to prioritize renewable energy and sustainable urbanization, mitigating the adverse health effects of CO2 emissions from non‐renewable energy sources. The study's findings further endorse a strategic shift towards renewable energy sources, positioning them as substitutes for conventional forms such as fossil fuels. Additionally, the emphasis is on planned and sustainable urbanization, facilitating improved access to health facilities and overall public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vietnam has transitioned from one of the poorest countries globally into a middle-income nation in three decades since the 1986 Economic Renovation (Doi Moi). However, this economic reform miracle has been widely supported by extensive urbanization and industrialization, leading to severe deterioration in environmental quality. While the effect of economic growth on environmental degradation has been extensively investigated, previous studies on Vietnam have largely ignored the role of urbanization and industrialization, the two key pillars in supporting economic growth in Vietnam. As such, this study focuses on the effect of urbanization and industrialization on environmental quality from 1985 to 2021 using the ARDL estimation. Our overall finding confirms that urbanization in Vietnam leads to further environmental degradation in the short run. However, this negative effect disappears in the long run. However, industrialization deteriorates environmental quality in both the short- and long-run. Our empirical results confirm the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in the presence of urbanization and industrialization in the Vietnamese context in the long run, implying that Vietnam's environmental quality may be improved in the long run when a certain income level is met. These findings imply that the Vietnamese government should reconsider the priority of its industrialization strategy to ensure that sustainable economic growth is not at the expense of environmental quality in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effect of economic integration on the environment in a sample of 36 African countries from 1990 to 2018. We employ the fixed-effect D&K estimator and the mediation analysis to examine direct and indirect effects, respectively. The findings reveal that economic integration improves the environment only when its negative indirect effects are neutralized. Precisely, economic integration has a direct negative effect on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and an indirect positive effect through urbanization, renewable energy consumption, financial development, and industrialization. The net effect is positive, and therefore, economic integration undermines the environmental quality in Africa. This result is robust when economic integration is split into trade and financial integration. The main implication of this study is that integration policies in Africa should also target greening the financial sector, sustainable urban planning, energy efficiency in the industrial sector, and renewable energy use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing urbanisation and industrialisation produce major environmental challenges such as air pollution, which endangers human, animal, and vegetation life. Reliable measurement, monitoring, and prediction of Air Quality (AQ) have emerged as key global concerns. The State Government-Municipal Corporation is working on policy reforms to fight the deterioration of air quality in Pune and other Indian cities. In this paper, Real Time Air Quality Surveillance & Forecasting System (RTAQSFS) has been developed, which work in the cascaded model incorporating electronics hardware as well as machine learning algorithms. The presence of air pollutants is measured using sensors like MQ135, MQ7, MQ131 etc. The performance of machine learning algorithms viz. Linear regression, Ridge regression, Lasso regression, Decision tree and Random Forest has been evaluated wrt. RMSE and R2. The experimental results show that Random Forest outperforms the other algorithm providing less RMSE and R2 as 99.9% for all the parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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As urbanization has accelerated, China has started to build smart cities, which have formed smart-city clusters. It is critical to coordinate development within smart-city clusters to enhance the efficiency of city-cluster construction. From the perspective of demographic economics, this study innovatively constructed an evaluation system for the coordinated development of smart-city clusters and utilized the coupled coordination degree model to conduct an in-depth study of smart-city clusters in Jiangsu Province. The results show that there are clear differences in the development between the three regions of Jiangsu Province: Southern Jiangsu, Central Jiangsu, and Northern Jiangsu. The development within Jiangsu Province is imbalanced, where the overall development trend is high in the southern region and low in the northern region. The main driving factors include geography, the Matthew effect, game thinking, and industrial structure. Accordingly, the results suggest the following recommendations for the coordinated development of smart-city clusters: strengthening cross-regional cooperation, promoting data sharing and interoperability, deepening synergistic industrial development, and expanding innovation capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context and background Availability and accessibility of suitable land are crucial factors for attracting and sustaining land-based investment. Access to land has become a significant concern across various regions and countries in the 21st century, As the world's population continues to grow, so does the demand for land to accommodate urbanization and land-based investment as agriculture and industrial development increases. This escalating pressure on land resources poses numerous challenges, such as overlapping land claims, and conflicts over land rights. In response, different societies have developed a myriad of strategies to gain access to land, influenced by diverse legal, and socio-economic factors. Goal and Objectives: The study aims to analyze current strategies used, impacts and determine the optimal strategy that meets the needs of investors and local communities. Methodology: A Mixed-methods approach was adopted, where both interviews and questionnaires were used. A total of 96 questionnaires were distributed to investors and local people but only 79 qualified responses were good for analysis of this study. The response rate obtained on the distributed questionnaire was 82% of the target population. This sample was obtained using non-probability sampling techniques whereby both snowball and purposive sampling were adopted for the selected sample. Results: Findings reveal that strategies observed were leasing (54%), encompassing individual land leases and government-allocated leases through (TIC). Land purchases constituted 34% while joint ventures accounted for 8%. Likert scale responses highlighted the negative impacts of the strategies, with 90% of participants strongly agreeing that purchasing and leasing led to conflicts, insecurity of tenure, and land grabbing. Similarly, 69% agreed that government allocation resulted in unfair compensation and competition over land resources, favoring investors and leaving limited resources for local communities. Additionally, the analysis reveals that leasing under government allocation is the optimal land access strategy. The study suggests that legal reforms, enhancement of transparency, and equitable land governance systems that prioritize the community's participation in land management [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Territorial spatial planning involves fixability and flexibility in different driving factors related to control and development orientation, and they play an important role in regional sustainable development, especially in developing countries such as China. With rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, China has been impacted by conflicts between development and protection in territorial space. To integrate the contradictions among different territorial spatial planning measures, planners and scholars have started to focus on studies regarding fixability–flexibility relationships and integration. However, the relationship between and integration of fixability and flexibility in territorial spatial planning have yet to be clearly summarised. This paper explores an innovative research direction for the fixability–flexibility relations in territorial spatial planning from a new perspective, the Food–Energy–Water Nexus, which is a dynamic and comprehensive framework for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) studies. This paper covers the existing research on fixability and flexibility in territorial spatial planning. Moreover, after summarising the conflicts of fixability and flexibility, the dialectical relationship between and the integration of fixability and flexibility are researched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rio Grande is a city located on a narrow industrialized and urbanized Brazilian peninsula, characterized by wetlands. Due to population growth, numerous urban backfilled regions were built to expand the territorial area of the city. Currently, more than 60% of the central area of the city comes from the grounding of wetlands. The material used for the expansion of the territory had a history of contamination from metals from the tannery and textile industries (mainly Hg) and urban solid waste. In addition to past sources, the city has an active industrial complex with fertilizer, petrochemical, and grain industries. This study evaluated the risks to human health caused by metals (Hg, Fe, Ni, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn) in original soils and backfills, considering the oral, inhalation, and dermal routes of exposure for children and adults using the tool human health risk assessment (HHRA) proposed methodology by USEPA. A total of 63.81% of the original soil samples and 57.14% of the backfill soil samples showed a non-carcinogenic risk (HInc>1) for at least one evaluated metal. Still, approximately 10% of the samples presented carcinogenic risk when the Cr was considered in the hexavalent form. The dermal (Hg, Ni, and Cr) and oral (Fe, Cu, and Zn) exposure routes had the greatest contribution to the total risk. The non-carcinogenic risk for Hg, Cr(VI), and Pb was heterogeneously distributed between the original soils and backfills and associated with the proximity to some pollution sources. Given the complexity of historical occupation in the municipality and the increasing industrialization, both the original areas and the backfills should be included in the risk management strategy to minimize risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has gained an increasing trend and has become an international issue, and sustainable energy technologies have been considered the best solution for it that needs new researchers’ focus. Hence, the article examines the impact of sustainable energy technologies such as renewable electricity output on climate change (carbon dioxide emissions) in E7 countries. The article also investigates the impact of renewable energy (RE) consumption, energy use, urbanization, energy import, and industrialization on the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in E7 countries. The secondary data has been gathered using secondary sources such as World Development Indicators (WDI) from 2001 to 2020. The study has used the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) to check the linkage among the variables. The results indicated that the renewable electricity output and RE consumption are negatively associated with CO2 emissions in E7 countries. The results also indicated that energy usage, industrialization, energy import, and urbanization positively correlate with CO2 emissions in E7 countries. This research guides the policymakers in developing the policies related to the adoption of sustainable energy technologies to control climate change.

Current industrial operations pollute the world's land, water, and air with heavy metals. Metals' environmental behaviour and geographical distribution near the industrial production. Heavy metal contamination potential was assessed using geoaccumulation index, enrichment factor, and other criteria. Heavy metal concentrations have increased due to industrial waste, geochemical shifts, agriculture, and mining. Modifying cell structure, heavy metals can harm and cause cancer. We need to develop and conduct comprehensive monitoring to determine if industrial production and mining is causing elevated heavy metal levels nearby area in the zone. This review shares contemporary heavy metal contamination on its nature, origin, and extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of planning development in various countries shows that the core logic of planning is the spiral interweaving of control and development, and constantly makes corresponding adjustments to respond to changes and challenges in social and economic development. Most of the planning in western countries originated from control-oriented paradigm, then integrated development-oriented elements, and finally has evolved into comprehensive coordination-oriented planning paradigm. China's planning, which originated from development-oriented paradigm, has shifted towards control-oriented planning as represented by territorial spatial planning to tackle issues such as excessive consumption of resources. In the face of economic, social and environmental challenges, China's urban planning in the future should also move towards a comprehensive balance between control and development. The common thread of control is the sustainable development of economy, society, and environment. The common thread of development is to achieve the Chinese path to modernization. The content of control and development will vary with different spatial scales and time stages. Take Hubei's practice as an example, planning control is driven by the integrated management of watershed and planning development is led by the synchronization of new industrialization, IT application, new urbanization, and agricultural modernization. Hubei Province seeks to promote high-quality, sustainable development through comprehensive coordination-oriented planning that combines control and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating rate of deforestation presents significant challenges to the global economy, including the loss of habitats for endangered species and a decline in biocapacity reserves. This situation also raises concerns about overcrowding and excessive production, which can undermine conservation efforts. Addressing this issue, Sustainable Development Goal 15 of the United Nations emphasizes managing forest resources, preventing habitat loss, combatting desertification, and expanding biodiversity reserves. Its contributions have played a pivotal role in wildlife conservation, mitigating rural-urban migration and preserving land resources. Given the relevance of this problem, this study examines the consequences of ongoing tropical deforestation on the loss of endangered species habitats while controlling for biocapacity reserves, urbanization, economic growth, and industrialization across a large sample of 159 nations, further categorized into low-, middle-, and high-income countries. The findings from cross-sectional and quantile regression analyses reveal that higher deforestation rates, increased ruralurban migration, and greater industrialization threaten endangered species habitats. Conversely, increased biocapacity reserves and economic growth contribute to wildlife restoration. Granger causality estimations highlight unidirectional relationships between deforestation and biodiversity loss (as well as biocapacity reserves), while deforestation and industrialization exhibit bidirectional causality. The results further indicate that sustained economic growth leads to deforestation, biocapacity reserves, and urbanization, while urbanization contributes to deforestation. This underscores the role of deforestation as the primary driver of habitat loss for endangered species and the depletion of biocapacity, thereby fostering mass production. Urbanization and economic growth are shown to be causally linked to deforestation across countries. The study underscores the urgent need to safeguard forest reserves against large-scale land conversion for infrastructure development, industrialization, and settlement of overpopulated urban areas, as these factors contribute to habitat degradation and biodiversity loss. Conserving, restoring, and promoting sustainable utilization of ecosystems are essential measures to address natural uncertainties and advance Sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The socialist period in Poland and other states in Central and Eastern Europe was associated with the country’s planned industrialisation and urbanisation. The effect of such a policy was the progressive development of urban areas, especially large cities, and an increase in the concentration of population in their area. This growth was fostered by the location of new industrial plants within the cities, the influx of people from rural areas, and socialized housing construction, in which the leading role was played by the construction of prefabricated block housing estates in cities. In parallel, the development of cities occurred during this period at the expense of the deceleration of suburbanisation in their surroundings. However, the end of the socialist period and the beginning of the transition period witnessed the development of single-family housing in the hinterland zones of large Polish cities. In fact, the spread of the private car and the liberalisation of land prices triggered a second wave of suburbanisation processes in suburban areas. The purpose of this article was to identify the main trends in housing construction in the hinterland zone of Wrocław in the years 1971–2011 and to determine the spatial effects of these processes in relation to morphological changes in suburban villages. It was assumed that the beginning of the transformation period (1989–2002) was associated with a change in the locations of concentration of construction activity, moving away from the core city and its satellite towns at the end of the socialist period (1971–1988) toward the core city and the villages of the suburban zone in the modern period (2002–2011). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Industrial Revolution, which took place from the late 18th to the mid-19th century, had a profound impact on society. It leads to unprecedented economic and technological progress, as well as significant changes in the social structure. Along with the positives, there are quite a few negative effects. The purpose of this article is to present the basics, such as exploitation of workers, poor working conditions, child labor, poor physical and mental condition of the population, urbanization, environmental pollution, etc. As Great Britain began its industrialization before all other countries, therefore its citizens were exposed to the negative effects for the longest time, the data and sources used are mainly from the United Kingdom. A descriptive method is used, presenting both contemporary sources and those from the time of the industrial revolution itself, specifically Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus. The information collected is interpreted by analyzing the negative social consequences of industrialization. Although usually distinguished, in practice these effects are closely related. For example, poor working conditions and long working hours, combined with environmental pollution, lead to a deterioration in the health of the working class. Due to the intensive burning of fossil fuels, air pollution in industrial cities during the period was many times higher than modern standards. Along with the negative effects of industrialization itself, the uneven distribution of wealth is increasing. All this leads to social unrest, protests and movements for workers' rights, which shows the clear need for social reforms. It was the emergence of the first trade unions and the formation of labor movements that were a response to the exploitation and poor conditions faced by workers during this time. As a positive side, if it can be called so, of the negative effects of industrialization, the political impetus for the development of the first systems of social security, education and health care was formed towards the end of the 19th century. A change in public attitudes brought about by the negative effects of industrialization reflected a growing recognition of the need to move away from the early laissez-faire approach and provide greater social security for wage workers on the part of the state. Therefore, industrialization itself is an important cause of the transformation from a market economy to a mixed economy system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to detail the relationships between urbanization, industrialization, the innovation ability of cities and local air quality in 284 cities in China using annual data. For the empirical outputs, the panel quantile regression analysis, which considers the heterogeneous nature of the data set, is employed. Initial findings indicate that (i) urbanization and industrialization negatively affect local air quality. (ii) Innovation capability of cities has a direct and improving impact on local air quality. Then, the paper estimates the moderating role of cities' ability to innovate in the polluting effect of urbanization and industrialization on local air quality. Remarkably, empirical evidence indicates that (iii) the innovation ability of cities also moderates the polluting impact of urbanization and industrialization on local air pollution. Based on the findings, the paper confirms the importance of both direct and moderator effects of the innovative environment in cities in tackling air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization, often coupled with industrialization, is generally considered as a boost for improving livelihood as well as alleviating ecological pressures of the rural areas. However, this experience needs to be tested in less industrialized areas, particularly where the urbanization is driven by non-economic factors such as urban public services and relevant government policies rather than employment opportunities. Taking two villages on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as examples, through the field investigation by using semi-structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews, and statistical data analysis, we explored the impacts of urbanization on migrants' livelihoods and the ecological conditions of their original village rangeland. We found that the disposable income and savings of emigrant households were less than the stay households, which might be correlated to the limited employment due to the lagged industrialization in the local township, and the mismatch between their traditional labor skills and the demands of urban services. Their home-village rangeland overuse was not alleviated since the increasing grazing pressure caused by the stay households, though the emigrant households intended to decrease the number of livestock on their home pasture. We concluded that the urbanization misaligned with local industrialization may fail to improve migrant livelihoods and local ecological conditions in less industrialized areas. Our research supplements the previous urbanization theory by highlighting the non-industrialization driven urbanization, and is particularly pertinent for the transitional countries worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the causal relationship between logistics efficiency and factors affecting the logistics environment, such as industrialization, urbanization, and CO2 emissions. With the expectation that logistics efficiency will contribute to economic growth and enhance country competitiveness in the near future, it is necessary to confirm the impact of each factor on different transportation modes, such as maritime and air transport. To this end, this study identifies causal relationships between the factors affecting the logistics environment and specific modes of transportation using data from 2010 to 2018. We employed the panel unit root test, panel co-integration test, fully modified OLS (FMOLS), panel dynamic OLS (DOLS), and panel VECM Granger causality tests for the estimations. The results revealed that factors affecting the logistics environment have different effects depending on the modes of transportation. For maritime transportation, long-run bidirectional causal associations were found between port volume, total exports, industrialization, and urbanization. This implies that export promotion and the resulting economic and social environment changes can increase port throughput; this increase can, in turn, develop and improve economic growth and factors affecting the logistics environment. In contrast, for air transport, we detected a long-run, unidirectional causal relationship among these variables and air volume changes with growing exports, urbanization, and industrialization. Thus, this study suggests a theoretical framework for analyzing the causal relationship between the factors affecting the logistics environment and each mode of transportation, providing insights for policymakers to promote logistics efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While energy, which is an indispensable part of everyday life, maintains its importance and place in socio-economic structures of countries, importance of electricity energy, as an important component of energy, is increasing its gravity exponentially. Importance of electricity energy demand maintains its increasing trend in line with growing population, urbanization, industrialization, becoming widespread of technology and welfare. While meeting electricity energy demand, correct and effective load forecasting is needed in order to ensure operational safety without losing the stability of voltage, frequency and power flows within the limits determined under the real time conditions of electric power systems, operate and plan secure and low-cost electricity transmission systems and supply sustainable, reliable, high quality and affordable electricity to consumers. In recent years, use of the artificial intelligence models are quite common in many areas of the power system analysis and control, static and dynamic security analysis, dynamic load modelling and alarm processing and error diagnostics. Therefore, in this study, hybrid artificial neural network model optimized with genetic algorithm has been proposed to perform short-term load forecast since fairly good forecasting results are being obtained especially for non-linear complex problems. The proposed short-term load forecasting model has been tested by making 24 hours load forecasting using actual load data of Ankara Region in Turkey. The results obtained from the proposed model have been compared with classical ANN. In this study, for short-term electric load forecasting based on artificial neural networks and genetic algorithm an adaptive hybrid system has been proposed. Using artificial neural network based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) a new approach for short-term electric load forecasting has been developed. This proposed hybrid algorithm has been implemented for short-term load forecasting. In the proposed model, the actual forecast was made by ANN, Genetic Algorithm is used to select the most appropriate activation function for each node of ANN. Thus, it has been observed that network error decreased even more than classical ANN. The results show that hybrid ANN gives better result than classical ANN. So, the accuracy of the proposed model for short-term load forecasting has been increased. These results showed that the proposed model has a higher accuracy rate than the classical ANN in the short-term load forecasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of industrialization and urbanization has been affecting the concept and practice of marital relations in general and of communities in the outskirts of industrial zones in particular. This impact process is clearly shown in the trend of late marriage, wide connection radius, variable selection standards for communication systems. The right to decide on marriage gradually shifts from parents to children, the model of residence and cohabitation after marriage is more independent, the trend of early household separation of newlywed couples. In addition, industrialization and urbanization also have the effect of making marital relationships looser, including the right to decide on marriage, the model of residence and living together after marriage. Research on the right to decide on marriage of the residential community on the outskirts of Le Mon industrial zone, Thanh Hoa city will focus on analyzing the right to decide on marriage, the time of marriage, and the impact of the issue on the right to decide on marriage of the suburban residential community, before and after the establishment of an industrial park in Le Mon industrial park, Thanh Hoa city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy demand in Australia is increasing with the industrialization and rapid economic growth. This study analyzed the relationships among the economic growth, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), trade openness, urbanization, and energy usage in Australia based on the data from World Development Indicators (WDI) from 1972 to 2021. The results indicated that there is a cointegration among economic growth, FDI, trade openness, urbanization, and energy usage, which was traced through the autoregressive-distributed lag (ARDL). The Zivot-Andrews unit root test reveals that energy usage, economic growth, FDI, urbanization, and trade openness show significant structural breaks in 1993, 1996, 1982, 2008, and 1994, respectively. The ARDL model shows that economic growth has a positive and significant effect on energy usage in the long-run (0.814) and short-run (0.809). Moreover, the results also show that FDI (0.028) and trade openness (0.043) have positive impacts on energy usage in the long-run. However, urbanization shows a negative and significant influence on energy usage in the long-run (=0.965). Then, the research demonstrates a unidirectional causation between energy usage and trade openness, with energy usage significantly causing trade openness. The current study endorses energy consumption policies and investment strategies for a paradigm shifting from a reliance on fossil fuels as the primary energy source to renewable energy sources. These findings have profound implications for sustainable energy usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Watershed dynamics are governed by geomorphic indices, which include both surface and subsurface characteristics. In this study, several hydrological indices investigate the dynamics of the Asan watershed in Uttarakhand, India focusing on the interplay between human activities and natural processes using geomorphic indices and remote sensing techniques. The research aims to achieve a planned sustainable development by understanding various geo-environmental aspects related to stream network analysis, evaluation of different terrain attributes and land-use patterns. Utilizing the use of highresolution satellite data, such as DEM and satellite images, enhances the impact on land surface management and strengthens the overall research. The Asan watershed, designated as the 6 th ordered dendritic network, exhibits the dominance of moderately permeable strata with significant discharge potential and a tectonic tilt that favours fluvial erosion. Structural influence is observed to be more pronounced in longitudinal profiles of various higher-order streams. The research shed light on rapid industrialization and urbanisation. Through the generation of decadal LULC maps from 1980 to 2016, the study reveals a four-fold increase in the urban area over the last four decades. Economic, topographic, and commercial factors contribute to these dynamic changes, which alarmed environmental scientists and planners for effective management and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACTIncreasing levels of industrialization have been associated with changes in gut microbiome structure and loss of features thought to be crucial for maintaining gut ecological balance. The stability of gut microbial communities over time within individuals seems to be largely affected by these changes but has been overlooked among transitioning populations from low- to middle-income countries. Here, we used metagenomic sequencing to characterize the temporal dynamics in gut microbiomes of 24 individuals living an urban non-industrialized lifestyle in the Brazilian Amazon. We further contextualized our data with 165 matching longitudinal samples from an urban industrialized and a rural non-industrialized population. We show that gut microbiome composition and diversity have greater variability over time among non-industrialized individuals when compared to industrialized counterparts and that taxa may present diverse temporal dynamics across human populations. Enterotype classifications show that community types are generally stable over time despite shifts in microbiome structure. Furthermore, by tracking genomes over time, we show that levels of bacterial population replacements are more frequent among Amazonian individuals and that non-synonymous variants accumulate in genes associated with degradation of host dietary polysaccharides. Taken together, our results suggest that the stability of gut microbiomes is influenced by levels of industrialization and that tracking microbial population dynamics is important to understand how the microbiome will adapt to these transitions.IMPORTANCEThe transition from a rural or non-industrialized lifestyle to urbanization and industrialization has been linked to changes in the structure and function of the human gut microbiome. Understanding how the gut microbiomes changes over time is crucial to define healthy states and to grasp how the gut microbiome interacts with the host environment. Here, we investigate the temporal dynamics of gut microbiomes from an urban and non-industrialized population in the Amazon, as well as metagenomic data sets from urban United States and rural Tanzania. We showed that healthy non-industrialized microbiomes experience greater compositional shifts over time compared to industrialized individuals. Furthermore, bacterial strain populations are more frequently replaced in non-industrialized microbiomes, and most non-synonymous mutations accumulate in genes associated with the degradation of host dietary components. This indicates that microbiome stability is affected by transitions to industrialization, and that strain tracking can elucidate the ecological dynamics behind such transitions.

Africa’s economy continues to be characterized by increasing environmental pollution caused by anthropogenic activities. Despite the implications of environmental pollution in the continent, little attention has been paid to it, although almost all its countries are signatories to the Paris Agreement. One macroeconomic variable that has proven to be a major driver of environmental pollution in the region is industrialization. However, despite the numerous explorations on the connection between industrialization and environmental degradation, limited studies have examined the linkage amidst the series in East Africa. This study was, therefore, conducted to help fill that gap. In accomplishing this goal, econometric techniques that control cross-sectional correlations, heterogeneity, and endogeneity, among others, were employed for the analysis. From the results, the panel under consideration was heterogeneous and cross sectionally correlated. In addition, the studied series were first differenced stationary and co-integrated in the long run. The elasticities of the regressors were explored via the cross sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) estimator, the cross sectionally augmented distributed lag (CS-DL) estimator, and the augmented mean group (AMG) estimator. According to the results, industrialization led to a reduction in the environmental quality in the region through high CO2 emissions. In addition, financial development, foreign direct investments, urbanization, and energy consumption were not environmentally friendly in the bloc. On the causal linkages amid the series, bidirectional causalities between industrialization and CO2 emissions, energy consumption and CO2 emissions, and foreign direct investments and CO2 emissions were detected. Finally, one-way causal movements from financial development and urbanization to CO2 emissions were unraveled. These findings are useful in helping stimulate the emission mitigation agenda of the region. Based on the findings, the study recommended, among others, that national policies that can promote energy conservation at the industrial level and can convert the industrial structure of the region to a low carbon-intensive one should be formulated.

This review offers a novel perspective by exploring the combined effects of microplastics (MPs) and urbanization on soil health, differing from conventional studies that focus solely on individual factors. Integrating the impact of urbanization and MPs provides a holistic view, revealing significant implications for soil degradation. As research on microplastics within soil gains traction, understanding the complex interplay between urban soil and microplastics becomes crucial. We have conducted a comprehensive review of existing literature, examining the origins of microplastics, their movement through soil, detrimental effects on soil health and function, transmission through food chains, and consequent harm to soil organisms. This review aims to summarize the origins and consequences of MPs and urbanization on soil health, assess the influence of MPs on soil vitality and functionality, and scrutinize potential ecological and health hazards within soil due to microplastics. By consolidating prior research, this review contributes insights into land-use changes associated with urbanization, elucidates the relationship between MPs and urbanization concerning soil health, examines microplastic migration and toxicology, and proposes management strategies to mitigate the risks posed by MPs and urbanization. The urgent need to develop effective strategies to manage these pollutants stresses the significance of this research, suggesting approaches such as reducing plastic usage, implementing sustainable urban and industrial practices, and employing efficient soil restoration methods.