Today urban development lacks ecological foundations in many cities of Turkey. The purpose of this study is to reveal the relationship between urban green spaces and ecological zones in the sample of Aksaray/Turkey. In this study, a study design has been created to improve the urban ecological infrastructure and to associate the green space network with the ecological zones. This design is divided into four parts as data processing, landscape pattern of urban green spaces, analysis of the spatial boundaries of urban natural ecological zones, and determination of the importance of spatial regions by overlaying two different stratified analyses. This study proposes a methodological framework that can be integrated into efforts to identify ecological zones to increase the sustainability of urban ecology and green space quality. One potential limitation of the proposed methodology can be the lack of consensus and enthusiasm among the administrative actors regarding the issue. Therefore, it is recommended that the administrative bodies should be correctly informed by the relevant scholars and practitioners who are working on the subject.

This study aims to develop a framework that helps organizations to fulfill their environmental and social responsibility amid constraints in selecting which stakeholders’ interest comes first and the essential to have an evolved strategic planning that can accommodate broader systemic planning and practice that will yield authenticity in business sustainability with components of environmental worldview of its leaders and organizational learning in the framework. This research uses the method of literature review with the data from interviews and content analysis of the report from one organization that has successfully implemented social and environmentally friendly practices. Based on an in-depth review of literatures on worldview, organizational learning, and strategic planning, and with empirical study from one organization, a conceptual framework by combination of the existing concepts is produced to enable an integration of theories in a range of possible actions for organizations to achieve sustainable development. The result from this research’s framework will allow further study to be carried out in the future to verify associations between existing concepts or variables within the framework, and to produce next empirical results in supporting those theories being reviewed in this paper.

Iran has one of the oldest civilizations in the world, and many elements of today’s urban planning and design have their origins in the country. However, mass country-city migration from the 1960s onwards brought enormous challenges for the country’s main cities in the provision of adequate housing and associated services, resulting in a range of sub-standard housing solutions, particularly in Tehran, the capital city. At the same time, and notably in the past decade, Iran’s main cities have had significant involvement in the smart city movement. The Smart Tehran Program is currently underway, attempting to transition the capital towards a smart city by 2025. This study adopts a qualitative, inductive approach based on secondary sources and interview evidence to explore the current housing problems in Tehran and their relationship with the Smart Tehran Program. It explores how housing has evolved in Tehran and identifies key aspects of the current provision, and then assesses the main components of the Smart Tehran Program and their potential contribution to remedying the housing problems in the city. The article concludes that although housing related issues are at least being raised via the new smart city technology infrastructure, any meaningful change in housing provision is hampered by the over centralized and bureaucratic political system, an out of date planning process, lack of integration of planning and housing initiatives, and the limited scope for real citizen participation.

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.

Taking the west slope of Cangshan Mountain in Yangbi County, Dali as the research site, on the basis of investigating the local natural geographical conditions, topography and biodiversity status of Cangshan Mountain, the CAP protection action planning method was adopted, and the priority protection objects were determined to be native forest vegetation, rare and endangered flora and fauna, alpine vertical ecosystems, hard-leaf evergreen broad-leaved forests and cold-tempered coniferous forests; The main threat factors were commercial collection, tourism development and overgrazing. Biodiversity conservation on the western slope of Cangshan Mountain should take species as “point”, regional boundary as “line”, ecosystem and landscape system as “plane”, so as to realize the overall planning structure system combining “point—line—plane”, which can be divided into conservation core area, buffer zone and experimental area. The results can provide a reference for biodiversity conservation on the western slope of Cangshan Mountain.

While there has been much discussion about the large infrastructure needs in Asia and the Pacific, less attention has been paid to public expenditure efficiency in infrastructure services delivery. New constructions are not the only solution, especially when governments have limited capital to invest. Globally, new infrastructure projects face delays and cost overruns, leading to an inefficient use of public resources. The root causes include the lack of transparency in project selection, the lack of project preparation, the silo approach by public entities in assessing feasibility studies, and the lack of public sector capacity to fully develop a bankable pipeline of projects. To tackle these issues, governments need a smarter investment approach and to do so, enhancing public service efficiency is very crucial. The paper suggests a “whole life cycle” (WLC) approach as the main strategic solution for the discussed issues and challenges. We expand the definition of WLC to include the entire life cycle of the infrastructure asset from need identification to its disposal. The stages comprise planning, preparation, procurement, design, construction, operation and maintenance, and disposal. This is because we believe any efficient or inefficient decision throughout such a wide life cycle influences the quality of public services. Hence, in this holistic approach, infrastructure life cycle consists of four phases: planning, preparation, procurement, and implementation. Governments could enhance public efficiency and thus improve access to finance throughout the WLC by several solutions. These are (i) preparing infrastructure master plan and pipelines and long-term budgeting during the planning phase; (ii) establishing framework and guidelines and improving governance during preparation phase; (iii) promoting standardization, transparency, open government, and contractual consistency during the procurement phase; and finally (iv) continued role of government and total asset management during the implementation phase. In addition to these phase-specific means, key WLC solutions include proper use of technology, capacity building, and private participation in general and public-private partnership (PPP) in particular.