The detection of urban expansion through digital processing of satellite images provides valuable information for understanding the dynamics of land use change and its spatial relationship with environmental factors. In order to apply or generate effective land-use planning policies, it is essential to have a historical record of the regional distribution of human settlements, an element that is practically non-existent in our country. For this reason, this text aims to determine the urban growth rate during the period 2000–2014 in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico, and to identify potential expansion zones from Landsat images. Six Landsat scenes were used for the spatial analysis of the state urban coverage and their relationship with the road influence area was evaluated. Two maps were obtained as cartographic products: one of urban coverage distribution and another of the municipalities with the greatest expansion, whose areas are located in the Valle del Mezquital region. However, Mineral de la Reforma, Tetepango, Tizayuca and Pachuca de Soto stand out for their growth rates during the study period: 183.44%, 102%, 94% and 68.5%, respectively. In total, the state urban area in-creased 72.3 km² from 2000 to 2014 with an average growth rate of 1.8% per year. Such growth was associated with the areas of influence of important road infrastructure, such as the Libramiento Arco Norte in Hidalgo. Therefore, the Mezquital Valley and the Mexico Basin are considered as potential regions for urban expansion in the state.

With the purpose of identifying the characteristics of variation in fruit size and seed production (potential and efficiency) of Cedrela odorata L. between sites and progenies established in the ejido La Balsa, municipality of Emiliano Zapata, Veracruz, fruits were harvested from 20 trees in February 2013, preserving the identity of each one. Fruit length and width were measured, seed was extracted and developed and aborted seeds were counted to calculate Seed Production Potential (SPP) and Seed Efficiency (SE). The results showed significant differences between sites and between progenies and for fruit length between sites. The mean values found were: 32.52 mm (fruit length), 18.73 mm (fruit width), 39.9 seeds per fruit (SPP) and 57.51% (SE). The seed of this species for its use should be selected taking into account the production characteristics of crops and outstanding individual trees, in addition, due to the current regulatory restrictions on seed collection, the establishment of trials and plantations for germplasm production is a viable option for forest management of the species.

The ultimate objective of the study was to investigate the effects of being landlocked on the living standards in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 1991 to 2019. Adopting the two-step estimation technique of System GMM (generalized method of moments), the study found that being landlocked has a negative and significant effect on the living standards in SSA countries when using GDP per capita as the living standard measure. Moreover, the historical living standard experiences of SSA countries have a positive and significant influence on the current living standard level. In addition, the population growth rate has a positive and significant effect on the living standards in SSA countries. On the other hand, the official exchange rate, broad money as a percentage of GDP, and inflation have a negative and significant effect on the living standards in SSA countries. Generally, the estimated result reveals the existence of a significant variation in the living standards in landlocked and coastal SSA countries. This study suggests that regional integration between landlocked and transit countries should be improved to minimize entry costs and increase access to global markets for landlocked countries. We argue that this study is of interest to landlocked and coastal countries to increase trade integration and promote the development of both groups, and it will contribute to the scarce empirical evidence.

Land use or land cover (LU/LC) mapping serves as a kind of basic information for land resource study. Detecting and analyzing the quantitative changes along the earth’s surface has become necessary and advantageous because it can result in proper planning, which would ultimately result in improvement in infrastructure development, economic and industrial growth. The LU/LC pattern in Madurai City, Tamil Nadu, has undergone a significant change over the past two decades due to accelerated urbanization. In this study, LU/LC change dynamics were investigated by the combined use of satellite remote sensing and geographical information system. To understand the LU/LC change in Madurai City, different land use categories and their spatial as well as temporal variability have been studied over a period of seven years (1999-2006), by analyzing Landsat images for the years 1999 and 2006 respectively with the help of ArcGIS 9.3 and ERDAS Imagine 9.1 software. This results show that geospatial technology is able to effectively capture the spatio-temporal trend of the landscape patterns associated with urbanization in this region.

The design of effective flood risk mitigation strategies and their subsequent implementation is crucial for sustainable development in mountain areas. The assessment of the dynamic evolution of flood risk is the pillar of any subsequent planning process that is targeted at a reduction of the expected adverse consequences of the hazard impact. This study focuses on riverbed cities, aiming to analyze flood occurrences and their influencing factors. Through an extensive literature review, five key criteria commonly associated with flood events were identified: slope height, distance from rivers, topographic index, and runoff height. Utilizing the network analysis process within Super Decision software, these factors were weighted, and a final flood risk map was generated using the simple weighted sum method. 75% of the data was used for training, and 25% of it was used for testing. Additionally, vegetation changes were assessed using Landsat imagery from 2000 and 2022 and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The focus of this research is Qirokarzin city as a case study of riverbed cities, situated in Fars province, with Qir city serving as its central hub. Key rivers in Qirokarzin city include the Qara Aghaj River, traversing the plain from north to south; the primary Mubarak Abad River, originating from the east; and the Dutulghaz River, which enters the eastern part of the plain from the southwest of Qir, contributing to plain nourishment during flood events. The innovation of this paper is that along with the objective to produce a reliable delineation of hazard zones, a functional distinction between the loading and the response system (LS and RS, respectively) is made. Results indicate the topographic index as the most influential criterion, delineating Qirokarzin city into five flood risk zones: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. Notably, a substantial portion of Qirokarzin city (1849.8 square kilometers, 8.54% of the area) falls within high- to very-high flood risk zones. Weighting analysis reveals that the topographic humidity index and runoff height are the most influential criteria, with weights of 0.27 and 0.229, respectively. Conversely, the height criterion carries the least weight at 0.122. Notably, 46.7% of the study area exhibits high flood intensity, potentially attributed to variations in elevation and runoff height. Flood potential findings show that the middle class covers 32.3%, indicating moderate flood risk due to changes in elevation and runoff height. The low-level risk is observed sporadically from the east to the west of the study area, comprising 12.4%. Analysis of vegetation changes revealed a significant decline in forest and pasture cover despite agricultural and horticultural development, exacerbating flood susceptibility. 

One of Indonesia’s main characteristics of tourism development is maritime tourism, which is synonymous with archipelagic countries. The diversity of maritime tourism offered by Indonesia will never end, so it needs to be considered more carefully and used relevantly to create sustainable tourism in Indonesia that provides broad benefits for the country. Many maritime tourism locations in Indonesia are beautiful but require more active promotion. The level of security and terrorism issues are a requirement that the government must consider. The novelty of this research describes the potential ecotourism development in the town of Makassar that stakeholders should consider in the formation of tourism policy. The research locations are in Makassar City, Samalona Island, Langkai Island, and Lanjukang Island. Ecotourism developed in the coastal areas of Makassar City, especially in Samalona, Lanjukang, and Langkai Islands, produces superior objects that collaborate elements of nature and society as the main attraction in the long term. Therefore, local governments need to strengthen monitoring of regional geopolitical developments in order to avoid security and terrorism problems that might cause inconvenience to tourists.