Green structure is one of the major pillars of an urban structure, which accelerates life events by promoting physical activities, mental, and psychological relaxation, providing oxygen for breathing ...and purifying air pollutants. However, a rapid urban expansion is shrinking urban greenness within and surrounding the cities violating environmental guidelines. Therefore, being a rapidly growing and densely populated city, Lahore attracted the study to assess the role of urban green spaces for human well-being. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted and statistical regression analyses were performed to investigate the role of UGSs for human well-being. Finally, a structural equation model was developed, in which the role of UGSs for human well-being was found to be highly significant (beta = 0.904, R
2
= 0.817) at P < 0.00. Therefore, the study concluded that urban green spaces are a key to well-being in Lahore, which needs to protect admitting their significance to the residents.
Small-scale business owners are among those who were very affected when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country. This group supports their families solely through daily sales profits. However, when the ...country began implementing the Movement Control Order (MCO) from March 2020 to May 2020, it was difficult for this group to survive. Some of them were unable to do business at all, while the majority experienced a significant decline in sales. This study aims to measure the ability of small-scale business owners to survive before and after the COVID-19 period. GIS software (ArcMap 10.4.1) was used to map the ability of small-scale business owners to survive before and after the pandemic. Data were obtained through face-to-face questionnaires conducted throughout the state of Kedah. Findings indicated that several districts have successfully managed the pandemic for economic survival. This was achieved through a well-collaborated effort by the government and NGOs to strengthen certain aspects of these small-scale business and revive their growth. Future work should focus on studying the actions taken by successful business owners in coping with the pandemic environment.
Palm oil’s utilization as a renewable energy (RE) source has led the government to intervene by introducing emission reduction projects. Carbon trading projects are part of the strategic direction ...adopted within the climate mitigation plan and sustainability drive in the palm oil industry. The perquisites and opportunities encountered within emissions trading are expected to aid palm oil producers economically, environmentally, and socially. This study addresses and analyses how the carbon trading projects’ targets in Malaysia can be achieved, the problematic, and pressing issues around their implementation and whether these projects are sustainable and create a positive impact. This paper is based on literature reviews and semi-structured interviews with expert palm oil producers in Malaysia. The findings have revealed that carbon trading implementation in Malaysia has delivered new insights towards the international climate policy approach on the feasibility and impact of long-term sustainability goals. However, the impact of the implementation needs support from the government for further development. In conclusion, the major contribution of this study is that the carbon trading implementation in Malaysia complies with the objectives and principles of sustainable development and creates a significant influx in investment for Malaysia’s economic growth.
Sub-Saharan African countries faced severe environmental hazards that affect the health and wealth of the countries. The study utilized number of environmental factors including carbon dioxide ...emissions, energy use, fossil fuel energy consumption, land used under cereal production, household final consumption expenditures and water sanitation facility that have a promising impact on African’s health. The study considered four health variables including external resources for health, health expenditures per capita, life expectancy at birth and out-of-pocket expenditures for seven selected Sub-Saharan African countries namely, Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Sudan for panel data estimations, over the period of 1995–2013. The results confirmed that environmental factors affect the African’s health i.e., carbon dioxide emissions increases the health expenditures per capita, while it decreases the external resource of health in a region. Fossil fuel energy consumption increases the external resources of health and life expectancy while it decreases the out-of-pocket expenditures of the African countries. Life expectancy significantly decreases the external resource of health. Finally, inadequate water sanitation increases the healthcare expenditures while it decreases the external resources of health and life expectancy in Sub-Saharan African countries.
Human has been evolving in a natural environment over a long time; thus, he is habitual to adapt it. Green spaces are obligatory landscapes in an urban structure that provide a natural environment ...and accelerate other life events. In contrast, unplanned urbanization, and conversion from green to grey structures have damaged natural environmental resources. Studies through different angles have highlighted the importance of urban green spaces for human well-being but now need to identify their role according to the potential. The demands of urban green spaces may differ with the change of population size, types of grey structure, urban expansion, the altitude of the place, and geographical location. Therefore, this systematic review aims to analyse the significance of urban green spaces for human well-being. The study opted for a systematic process during the selection and organization of studies for this review. After analysing, 46 studies were finalized with the consensus of three review authors. Accordingly, literature was analysed under the central theme of “Urban Green Spaces for Human Well-being.” Human Well-being was assessed under six sub-themes; physical, psychological, mental, social, subjective, and environmental well-being. The review concluded that urban green spaces are the primary pillar for a sustainable urban place and human well-being due to highly positive and positive correlations. Moreover, the study did not find any demarcation line between green spaces and grey structures according to any specific need. Therefore, the study suggested that the role of urban green spaces for human well-being should be analysed according to their potential and required optimal ratio under different communities’ urban specific environments and social behaviour.
Abstract
Landsat observation has numerous potentials as a quantitative approach in regional scale monitoring of urban growth and environmental change. To achieve this approach, three Landsat data of ...year 1991 (TM), 2005 (ETM+) and 2019 (OLI-TIRS) has been acquired, classified, and accurately assessed. The research assesses spatio-temporal urban growth, its pattern and land use land cover (LULC) changes of using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Building Index (NDBI) analysis. NDVI were performed for vegetation monitoring especially on loss of vegetation land while NDBI were performed for identification of dense urban and built-up areas. The NDVI and NDBI density results show a significant decreased of vegetation land and a leap up increased of urban and built-up land use. This indicates a significant rapid growth development and a vast transformation of agricultural and forest land into low density development. A rapid urban growth of regional development corridor has significant influence on environment change especially to their periphery. The utilization of both NDVI and NDBI as surrogates has the capability to provide dynamic view and improve the accuracy of land use land cover change analysis. The study showed urban growth has quadrupled from 1991 to 2019 with most rapid growth was from 1991 to 2005 due to greater low-density development and a discontinue growth pattern in the past years compare with much sustainable higher-density development in the recent years.
The growth of Iskandar Malaysia as a regional development corridor is inescapable large and rapid. The study area has been transformed from predominantly agricultural and forest land prior to 1990s ...into the second largest and third most urbanized area in peninsular Malaysia. The aim of this paper is to map Iskandar land cover change from 1991 to 2019 using sequential Landsat multi-spectral images with Normalized Difference Building Index (NDBI) analysis to assess spatio-temporal urban built up and its pattern. Accuracy assessment of kappa coefficient is used to measure the accuracy of classification. Research has proved a significant rapid land cover change and a vast transformation of agricultural and forest land into low density urbanized area scattered in Iskandar. A rapid land cover change of regional development corridor has significant influence on urban expansion especially to their periphery.
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