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The circular bioeconomy is increasingly recognized as a strategy to tackle natural resource constraints and environmental degradation. This paper examines the prospects of applying circular bioeconomy principles to drive economic growth in Indonesia's forestry sector. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, the study analyzes the sector through upstream, midstream, and downstream value chains. The findings indicate that integrating these principles can boost economic growth by fostering industrial development, innovation, added value, and job creation. In the upstream chain, sustainable forest management, planting, and conservation activities ensure raw material availability and create employment opportunities. The midstream chain sees the growth of creative industries focused on waste processing and logistics, driving innovation, added value, and job absorption. Downstream activities, such as repair, maintenance, refurbishment, upcycling, and rental services, also contribute to economic growth. For further economic development, the study highlights the importance of exploring technology-based activities like biorefineries and innovative product development. This integration at various stages of the value chain demonstrates that a circular bioeconomy can significantly contribute to sustainable economic growth in the Indonesian forestry sector.

The formation of the Jakarta Bandung Mega-Urban Region (JBMUR) has created a rapidly urbanized corridor, the JBMUR south conurbation corridor. Due to its geographical location, the expansion process in the JBMUR south conurbation corridor has caused significant social, economic, and environmental problems. This study explores and quantifies the impact of the urban expansion of the JBMUR on its south corridor, mainly on the spatial pattern and the form dynamics based on the land-use changes process, using landscape metrics and its implications on planning policy. The metrics used in this study describes a few patterns and form characteristics: density, clustering, connectivity, and shape. Those metrics are then quantitatively measured using the FRAGSTATS Urban Expansion Intensity to measure the expansion rate in four of the JBMUR South Conurbation Corridor urban areas. The result shows that the urban areas grow significantly from the core area and expand outside with the following pattern: increased urban density, less compact, and the two urban areas becoming closer/more connected. This growth intensity and pattern are happening due to the misalignment of the planning policies in the municipalities of the south corridor. It is needed for any future planning policies to mitigate these problems and create a robust plan to maintain the sustainability of the JBMUR South Conurbation Corridor as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization has become a global phenomenon that affects the food system. Some studies revealed that urbanization increases income/capita, thus transforming food consumption from cereals to animal products, vegetables, and fruits. Urbanization, particularly in developing countries, not only produces economic benefits but also various issues that might lessen peoples’ capacity to afford food. This study aims to analyze the impact of urbanization on food consumption, food composition, as well as farming performance. Series of consumption data since 1976 and statistical descriptive approaches were employed. The results showed a trend of declining the share of food expenditures, especially in urban areas, which is commonly regarded as a sign of increasing prosperity. Surprisingly, food composition remained stable, dominated by rice, due to lower-income and higher non-food expenditures of urban inhabitants mainly for housing, transportation, water and energy. The stagnancy of food composition provides less incentive for farmers; thus, farming is dominated by low-revenue paddy fields, uneducated laborers, and older farmers. Based on these findings, some recommendations can be suggested: (1) incorporating food composition and farming performance into food security policies, instead of merely focusing on the compliance of food supply and demand, (2) linking food issues with non-food issues, especially with urban planning, housing development, and transportation management to increase the income capacity of the society to purchase a greater variety of food, and (3) developing food diversification served by urban food vendors to support the benefits of the farming business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban form is the physical configuration of a city, developed over time and space. Urban form can be considered at different scales, from region to neighborhood, each carrying a different focus. North Cianjur serves as the hinterland and one of the conurbation corridors of the Jakarta–Bandung Mega-Urban Region, meaning that the balance between its function as an environmental buffer area and the destination of urban growth needs to be planned carefully. This paper explores the dynamics in North Cianjur and employs several model scenarios as a planning intervention using landscape dynamic tools and land-change modeling, with three scenarios employed: Business as Usual (BAU), Spatial Planning Policy (SPP), and Urban Containment (UCT). The result show that North Cianjur has transformed into a polycentric region with two urban zones, a peri-urban zone, and a rural zone in the northernmost part of the region. Urban form trends show a sprawling built-up pattern outside urban zones, and a compacted trend in urban zones due to expansion from the Jakarta and Bandung Metropolitan Area. UCT models appear to be the most optimal for implementation in North Cianjur, representing a way to accommodate urban growth and expansion inside the urban center while still maintaining regional sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mega-urban development in Monsoon Asia has a relatively similar pattern, which leads to the formation of Mega-Urban Region (MUR). Such urban development potentially threatens sustainability as it vastly expands to encroaching rural areas. North Cianjur has been experiencing urban expansion from its surrounding metropolitan areas of Jakarta and Bandung that leads to the formation of urban sprawl and many other environmental problems. In this case, spatial characterization based on a quantitative and objective approach is urgently needed to provide better insight into the development of the mega-urban region's suburb. This study proposed a quantitative and objective approach which was developed based on a quantitative zoning method. This study aims to characterize the region affected by urban expansion and urban form dynamics in North Cianjur using spatial clustering and spatial metrics approaches. The results showed that North Cianjur has four different zones consisting of two urban zones, a peri-urban zone, and a rural zone. Furthermore, the dynamics of urban forms in North Cianjur showed a trend of a more compact form in the urban zones while outside the urban zones it has become more sprawled and dispersed. This implies that spatial planning policies are incapable of containing and managing the massive expansion forces which were coming from Jakarta metropolitan, Bandung metropolitan, as well as Cianjur urban zones itself. Thus, the quantitative zoning method could enhance spatial planning, as different zones of urban–rural typology and urban from in the mega-urban suburb can be defined as a base for developing more specific effort in managing land-use changes. This approach could be adopted by other regions which have similar characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food security has become one of the global challenges; therefore, monitoring food consumption is required. As food consumption is a resultant of food availability at an affordable price, food expenditure actually is a key indicator to assess food security policy. Particularly, the link of food expenditure with socio-economic factors based on the perspective of spatial connectivity should be understood as nowadays food supply and demand between regions are increasingly connected. This study aims to define socio-economic driving factors of food expenditure that considering spatial connectivity between provinces in Indonesia. Data of household food expenditure and socio-economic factors by province including urbanization level, economic growth, gross domestic regional product (GDRP) per capita, poverty severity index, and unemployment rate were used. The preliminary test on the spatial correlation of food expenditure showed a significant result; thus, a spatial regression approach was employed. The results showed that declining food expenditure did not simply indicate increasing prosperity. Larger income disparity among the poor has become crucial to detect lower food expenditure caused by a lack of income. In addition, the increasing unemployment rate was followed by increasing food expenditure. Despite economic growth, increasing GDRP per capita and urbanization contributing to declining food expenditure, both poverty and unemployment are the main issues that threaten household's ability to afford food. Furthermore, the effect of food expenditure in the neighboring region is also significant, but it shows a contradictory relationship as food expenditure in a region is decreasing when food expenditure in its neighbors is increasing, and vice versa. Therefore, reducing disparities in economic growth, GDRP per capita, urbanization, poverty, and unemployment rate between provinces is also crucial to support more equal food expenditure as well as to achieve the second goal of SDG's (Sustainable Development Goals) in improving food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green spaces provide urban residents with numerous environmental and social benefits and are regarded as a fundamental part of sustainable urban development. However, the spatial distribution of green spaces is uneven in most cities and urban regions, which has been considered as an issue of environmental injustice. We present a study in which the spatial variation of green space equity and its relationship with socioeconomic variables were analyzed across different municipalities in the region of Munich, southern Germany. The Gini coefficient was applied as an indicator of green space equity and its relationship with socioeconomic variables was explored by using a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. Moreover, the impacts of different urban dynamic scenarios on green space equity were comparatively assessed at both the regional and sub-regional zone levels by incorporating a multiple urban dynamic scenario modeling approach. The results indicate that the relationships between green space equity and socioeconomic variables are not always consistently significant over space and the coefficients of GWR reflect great spatial heterogeneity indicating the relationships are locality-specific. At both levels, a higher housing demand scenario tends to increase the spatial inequality of green space distribution. Polycentric urban spatial structure scenarios are found less limiting than monocentric ones in terms of green space equity at the regional scale. Among different urban growth form scenarios (“sprawl”, “compact sprawl” or “compact”), “compact” growth is most favorable at both levels in terms of green space equity. However, the other two growth form scenarios perform differently in each sub-regional zone. Therefore, the physical and socioeconomic heterogeneity across space should be considered thoroughly in the process of developing policies for urban development that effectively safeguard access to sufficient green space. This implication is not only crucial for this study region but also of great significance for other urban regions which aim to achieve successful green space planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]