The present paper discusses the case of the Madrid Nuevo Norte Project (MNNP) in order to examine the relation of this mega-project with the city’s sustainable development. For this reason, the study used a qualitative approach using semi-structural interviews with experts (Madrid’s town hall, Madrid State, and the program management office and other external) that relayed strongly with MNNP. The expert panel requirements are split in six expertise areas: sustainability, urban development, urban planning, government or public affairs, project management or Madrid Nuevo Norte (MNN) key stakeholders. The study highlighted the vital importance of MNNP as a flagship sustainable project for the rest of Europe, that meets sustainability criteria for contributing substantially in the improvement of the quality of life of final users and for the community in general. For instance, it contributes to the regeneration of the city’s degraded area, to the interconnection of an isolated part of the city and public transportation connection, improving the external image of Madrid. Despite of it, there are some challenges that should be carefully managed such as applying sustainable solutions from other cities not properly tailored to Madrid, housing pricing accessibility increase due to the lack of terrain in Madrid and the politization of the project as discussion topic between local parties. In this context, local authorities should give particular emphasis in complying with the principles of sustainability for improving the overall performance of MNNP, ensuring social justice and prosperity for the people of Madrid.

Forest fire, as a discontinuous ecological factor of forest, causes the changes of carbon storage and carbon distribution in forest ecosystem, and affects the process of forest succession and national carbon capacity. Taking the burned land with different forest fire interference intensity as the research object, using the comparison method of adjacent sample plots, and taking the combination of field investigation sampling and indoor test analysis as the main means, this paper studies the influence of different forest fire interference intensity on the carbon pool of forest ecosystem and the change and spatial distribution pattern of ecosystem carbon density, and discusses the influence mechanism of forest fire interference on ecosystem carbon density and distribution pattern. The results showed that forest fire disturbance reduced the carbon density of vegetation (P < 0.05). The carbon density of vegetation in the light, moderate and high forest fire disturbance sample plots were 67.88, 35.68 and 15.50 t∙hm^-2, which decreased by 15.86%, 55.78% and 80.79% respectively compared with the control group. In the light, moderate and high forest fire disturbance sample plots, the carbon density of litter was 1.43, 0.94 and 0.81 t∙hm^-2, which decreased by 28.14%, 52.76% and 59.30% respectively compared with the control group. The soil organic carbon density of the sample plots with different forest fire disturbance intensity is lower than that of the control group, and the reduction degree gradually decreases with the increase of soil profile depth. The soil organic carbon density of the sample plots with light, moderate and high forest fire disturbance is 103.30, 84.33 and 70.04 t∙hm^-2 respectively, which is 11.670%, 27.899% and 40.11% lower than that of the control group respectively; the carbon density of forest ecosystem was 172.61, 120.95 and 86.35 t∙hm^-2 after light, moderate and high forest fire disturbance, which decreased by 13.53%, 39.41% and 56.74% respectively compared with the control group; forest fire disturbance reduced the carbon density of eucalyptus forest, which showed a law of carbon density decreasing with the increase of forest fire disturbance intensity. Compared with the control group, the effect of light forest fire disturbance intensity on the carbon density of eucalyptus forest was not significant (P > 0.05), while the effect of moderate and high forest fire disturbance intensity on the carbon density of eucalyptus forest was significant (P < 0.05).

Over several centuries, the native vegetation of the flat part of the Bogotá Savanna has been almost completely replaced by crops, pastures and urbanization. The last remnant of this vegetation is a small forest (10 hm²), located at Hacienda Las Mercedes on the northern edge of the city of Bogotá. The reduced size and isolation of the forest, aggravated by the uncontrolled growth of invasive vegetation (lianas and wild blackberry) has resulted in the loss of many species. However, in recent years the forest has been subject to rehabilitation actions and currently the area is immersed in a reserve where more extensive restoration programs are planned. In order to evaluate changes in the bird community to estimate the effects of restoration actions, the avifauna present in 2001–2002 and in 2014 was recorded by visual and auditory records at fixed points in the forest. Twenty-seven forest species were found in the first census and 30 in the second, and the relative abundances of at least a third of them also increased over the 13 years, indicating a positive result in the recovery of the forest. The results highlight the recovery capacity of the degraded ecosystems and the importance of continuing with restoration actions in the reserve area.

Municipal authorities in industrialized and in developing countries face unceasingly the issues of congestion, insufficiency of transport means capacity, poor operability of transport systems and a growing demand for reliable and effective urban transport. While the expansion of infrastructure is generally considered as an undesirable option, in specific cases, when short links or ring roads are missing, new infrastructure projects may provide beneficial solutions. The upgrading and renewal of existing networks is always a challenge to the development of a modern city and the welfare of citizens. Central governance and management of transport systems, the establishment of smart and digital infrastructure, advanced surveillance and traffic monitoring, and intra-city energy-harvesting policy are some of the steps to be taken during the transition to a green and sustainable urban future.
Municipal authorities have also to consider other options and strategies to create a citizen-friendly setting for mobility: diminish the need for trips (digitalization of services, e-commerce, etc.), shift from private to public transport and transform the urban form to promote non-motorized transport in favor of the natural environment and public health. A citizen-friendly policy based on the anticipation of future needs and technological development seems to be a requisite for European cities searching for a smooth integration of their networks into urban space.

Electricity generation around the world is mainly produced by using non-renewable energy sources especially in the commercial buildings. However, Rooftop solar Photovoltaic (PV) system produced a significant impact on environmental and economical benefits in comparison to the conventional energy sources, thus contributing to sustainable development. Such PV’s system encourages the production of electricity without greenhouse gas emissions that leads to a clean alternative to fossil fuels and economic prosperity even in less developed areas. However, efficiency of rooftop solar PV systems depends on many factors, the dominant being geographical (latitude, longitude, and solar intensity), environmental (temperature, wind, humidity, pollution, dust, rain, etc.) and the type of PV (from raw material extraction and procurement, to manufacturing, disposal, and/or recycling) used. During the feasibility analysis of the environment, geographical conditions are keep in well consideration, but the pollution level of the city is always overlooked, which significantly influences the performance of the PV installations.     

Therefore, this research work focused on the performance of rooftop solar PV installed in one of the most polluted city in India. Here, the loss in power generation of rooftop solar PV has been studied for the effect of deposited dust particles, wind velocity before and after the cleaning of the panels. The actual data has been utilized for the calculation of the energy efficiency and power output of the PV systems. According to the results, it has been concluded that dust deposition, wind speed and pollution level in city significantly reduces the efficiency of solar photovoltaic panel. Hence, an overview of social and environmental impacts of PV technologies is presented in this paper along with potential benefits and pitfalls.

To achieve sustainable development, detailed planning, control and management of land cover changes that occur naturally or by human caused artificial factors, are essential. Urban managers and planners need a tool that represents them the information accurate, fast and in exact time. In this study, land use changes of 3 periods, 1994-2002, 2002-2009, 2009-2015 and predictions of 2009, 2015 and 2023 were assessed. In this paper, Maximum Likelihood method was used to classify the images, so that after evaluation of accuracy, amount of overall accuracy for images of 2013 was 85.55% and its Kappa coefficient was 80.03%. To predict land use changes, Markov-CA model was used after assessing the accuracy, and the amount of overall accuracy for 2009 was 82.57% and for 2015 was 93.865%. Then web GIS application was designed via map server application and evoked shape files through map file and open layers to browser environment and for design of appearance of website CSS, HTML and JavaScript languages were used. HTML is  responsible for creating the foundation and overall structure of webpage but beautifying and layout design on CSS.