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The growth of secondary and tertiary sectors in the peri-urban villages results in development strain and causes demographic, socio-economic, and spatial transformations. Deficiency in provisioning of basic services is one of the prime concerns for these villages. This study aims to examine the present conditions and the community’s attitude towards waste management, and whether the self-help groups (SHGs) can aid in developing a sense of collective responsibility. Five villages from the Bhiwandi Surrounding Notified Area in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, India, were selected for a case study investigation of the current situation of service provisioning by the rural local bodies. Questionnaire surveys were conducted for 122 households and the heads of all SHGs in the villages simultaneously. Due to the limited household surveys, the data were triangulated with documents and interviews with officials. The results were qualitatively and quantitatively analysed to understand people’s perception of the SHGs and the major factors through which the groups contribute in improving livelihoods and living conditions. The SHGs also play a significant role in developing awareness of issues and social integration in the rapidly evolving structure of these peri-urban communities, as is highlighted in the case studies. The relations between SHG participation and literacy levels on the attitude towards local involvement in solid waste management for the villages were analysed. The resulting significant correlations point towards the consideration of these factors while planning for a development model for peri-urban villages. Policy-level support to the SHGs can help in fostering local partnerships and community initiatives towards better service delivery in the villages. This kind of social empowerment forms the basis for social sustainability, which in turn promotes economic and environmental sustainability.

Seagrass beds in central Vietnam plays an important role in the aquatic ecosystem. The area of seagrass beds in Cu Lao Cham Marine Protected Area (MPA), central Vietnam, has been reported to be declining in recent years. However, there has not been any study on assessing the changes in the area of seagrass beds in Cu Lao Cham MPA, especially by the application of remote sensing technology for evaluating temporal and spatial changes. The aim of this study is to establish the current status and document historical changes using maps of seagrass area in Cu Lao Cham MPA, central Vietnam, during the period of 2003–2017. This is the first study on assessing the temporal and spatial changes in the area of seagrass beds in central Vietnam using remote sensing technology. The study integrated field surveys, satellite remote sensing and GIS methods to analyse ALOS AVNIR-2 and Landsat satellite image data during the period of 2003–2017. The Kappa coefficients and overall accuracies of the years 2003, 2010 and 2017 were generally higher than 89% and 0.83, respectively, in all cases. Seagrass beds have mainly distributed near small islands such as Hon La, Hon Tai and Hon Dai. In particular, seagrass beds have almost disappeared at Bai Ong and Bai Huong in April 2017. In the period of 2003–2017, the area of the seagrass bed experienced significant changes. The seagrass area loss was 40.17 ha, and it gained 58.6 ha in the period of 2003–2010. In the period of 2010–2017, the loss of seagrass area was 68.76 ha, and the new addition was 7.27 ha. The study has identified a number of impacts of declining seagrass areas including marine pollution, changes in natural conditions and some other direct impacts from human activities and tourism. The results of this study could contribute to conservation of seagrass resources and sustainable livelihood development for the local community.

Conservation of protected areas is likely to be challenging in the long term if the dependence of local communities on natural resources is not measured appropriately. We investigated forest ecosystem services utilized by communities living around the Bach Ma National Park, Vietnam, and examined their spatial distributions through the integration of data from interviews, participatory mapping, and GIS analysis. The results suggest that provisioning services are crucial to the local livelihoods, and especially for an ethnic minority group. Many respondents confirmed the collection of specific types of forest foods, materials, and water resources mainly used for family consumption. We conducted spatial pattern analysis with land use, administrative units, terrain conditions, and accessibility, and clarified the characteristics of the spatial distribution of ecosystem service collection in relation to these factors, resource abundance, and forest governance. We propose the introduction of community-based tourism as one means to improve the livelihood opportunities of the ethnic minority groups to reduce their forest dependence.

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in the Khanh Hoa (Vietnam) coastal area plays an important role in coastal communities and the marine ecosystem. However, SAV distribution varies widely, in terms of depth and substrate types, making it difficult to monitor using in-situ measurement. Remote sensing can help address this issue. High spatial resolution satellites, with more bands and higher radiometric sensitivity, have been launched recently, including the Vietnamese Natural Resources, Environment, and Disaster Monitoring Satellite (VNREDSat-1) (V1) sensor from Vietnam, launched in 2013. The objective of the study described here was to establish SAV distribution maps for South-Central Vietnam, particularly in the Khanh Hoa coastal area, using Sentinel-2 (S2), Landsat-8, and V1 imagery, and then to assess any changes to SAV over the last ten years, using selected historical data. The satellite top-of-atmosphere signals were initially converted to radiance, and then corrected for atmospheric effects. This treated signal was then used to classify Khanh Hoa coastal water substrates, and these classifications were evaluated using 101 in-situ measurements, collected in 2017 and 2018. The results showed that the three satellites could provide high accuracy, with Kappa coefficients above 0.84, with V1 achieving over 0.87. Our results showed that, from 2008 to 2018, SAV acreage in Khanh Hoa was reduced by 74.2%, while gains in new areas compensated for less than half of these losses. This is the first study to show the potential for using V1 and S2 data to assess the distribution status of SAV in Vietnam, and its outcomes will contribute to the conservation of SAV beds, and to the sustainable exploitation of aquatic resources in the Khanh Hoa coastal area.

Supply of non-timber Forest Products (NTFPs) is an important provisioning ecosystem service. It is often argued that forest conservation contributes to poverty alleviation through provisioning of NTFPs to the poor. However, implicit assumptions of the argument that NTFPs are more intensively utilized by poor who lack alternative subsistence options, and that NTFP supplies are limited by forest cover, have rarely been critically examined. This study investigated social and environmental factors affecting NTFP uses in rural areas of Borneo, using a land cover map and socio-economic dataset collected from 1596 households in 87 villages. The NTFPs examined were wild boars, sambar deer, wild fruits, firewood, wild vegetables, and wild mushrooms. To explain the variations in NTFP uses among households, four village and nine household characteristics were considered using generalized linear mixed models. We found that forest cover and collection pressure limit the use of some NTFPs, supporting the second assumption. On the other hand, the first assumption was supported only for firewood, and animals and wild fruits were more frequently used by wealthier households, contrary to this assumption. Other factors (education, age and sex of householder and agricultural activities) were also related to the use of one or more NTFPs. This study demonstrates the complexity of the process by which forest cover and other factors affect the ecosystem services people receive. Evaluation of ecosystem services is an important and urgent research subject today, but it is also necessary to pay attention to who receives the benefits, and who does not.

The Paris Agreement is set to come into effect from the year 2020. With this, the issue of emission sharing responsibility has gained momentum. This paper discusses the future emission allowances of various countries based on different sharing principles. Twelve countries from six continents were chosen for observation based on attributes such as past emissions, extent of development, and population. The aim was to find the implication of different sharing principles in future emission quota of a diverse range of countries. Four different budgeting periods were employed for increased certainty. Future cumulative and per capita emission allowances were estimated. The results prove that longer budgeting periods are more advantageous for developed countries while shorter budgeting periods favor developing countries more. The study brings forth some new developments in emission distribution research, primarily concerned with the low emitting countries. Overall, the study contributes to the field of emission sharing science to meet global climate targets.

Conserving resources, harmonizing living standards, and employing energy efficient methods are potential solutions to climate change, which can be positively accomplished through development and planning. However, today, as the first world countries advance towards “positive development”, some third world countries are developing in an “unwanted pattern”. The metropolitan cities of developing countries attract most of the country’s population, consequently becoming the worst sufferers of the situation. They grow faster than their capacity allows, and then due to the lack of strategy, poor governance, and weak policies; face overwhelming pressure on land and natural resources. Documenting this situation using the case of a metropolitan city in India, the present paper aims to identify the problems faced by a metropolitan city in a developing country. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region’s Regional Plan 1996–2011 was analyzed to determine the response to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Furthermore, a new diagnostic tool, namely the “Climate Change Planning Index”, which can deliver valuable information at a glance, was developed. The paper concludes with a summary of the climate change crisis and the necessity of development in a developing metropolitan city.

Regular monitoring of expanding impervious surfaces areas (ISAs) in urban areas is highly desirable. MODIS data can meet this demand in terms of frequent observations but are lacking in spatial detail, leading to the mixed land cover problem when per-pixel classifications are applied. To overcome this issue, this research develops and applies a spatio-temporal sub-pixel model to estimate ISAs on an annual basis during 2001-2013 in the Jakarta Metropolitan Area, Indonesia. A Random Forest (RF) regression inferred the ISA proportion from annual 23 values of MODIS MOD13Q1 EVI and reference data in which such proportion was visually allocated from very high-resolution images in Google Earth over time at randomly selected locations. Annual maps of ISA proportion were generated and showed an average increase of 30.65 km2/year over 13 years. For comparison, a series of RF per-pixel classifications were also developed from the same reference data using a Boolean class constructed from different thresholds of ISA proportion. Results from per-pixel models varied when such thresholds change, suggesting difficulty of estimation of actual ISAs. This research demonstrated the advantages of spatio-temporal sub-pixel analysis for annual ISAs mapping and addresses the problem associated with definitions of thresholds in per-pixel approaches.