Springer Ltd.

With the mounting pressure of urbanization, how innovative blue-green infrastructure (BGI) can restore the ecosystem services of urban rivers is a timely issue for any densely populated city seeking to improve its resilience and sustainability through ecosystem-based solutions. Yet, the implementation of BGI is not hazard-free. Its success usually...

Land-use change is a crucial driver for achieving a sustainable future. However, the uncertainties of socioeconomic development could lead to different changes in the future land-use patterns. Using a spatial downscaling framework, this study aims to explore possible land-use patterns that can help achieve sustainable development in the Guangdong...

Agricultural land accounts for 37% of the world’s terrestrial area, and the multiple functions of agroecosystems—providing food, soil and water retention, and various cultural services—are of great importance for sustainable land management. To ensure that multifunctionality, payment for ecosystem services (PES) schemes have been developed for...

Population ageing and shrinking are demographic phenomena with far-reaching implications for sustainability in the current context of extensive and rapid urbanization. This Perspective rationalizes their interface by (a) identifying the challenges and opportunities that ageing and shrinking urban populations will have for implementing the...

Despite significant progress over the past decades, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains the poorest and least developed region in the world. High levels of poverty, food insecurity and environmental degradation, as well as low access to infrastructure and low institutional capacity characterize many areas across the continent. There is a consensus...

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have recently framed sustainable development priorities in both developed and developing countries. External funding in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI) and official development assistance (ODA) is necessary for achieving practically all of the SDGs and their underlying targets. However, it is not...

Various industrial crops have been promoted across sub-Saharan African (SSA) to meet very diverse socioeconomic objectives linked to economic growth, rural development, agricultural modernization and energy security. Even though industrial crop production and food security have received extensive policy attention, we lack a comprehensive...

Over the years, the relationship between the environment and disasters has received significant attention. This is largely due to the emerging recognition that environmental changes - climate change, land use and natural resource degradation make communities more vulnerable to disaster impacts. There is a need to break this nexus through...

Finite freshwater sources are facing huge threats both for quality and quantity from uncertain global changes, namely population growth, rapid urbanization, and climate change. These threats are even more prominent in developing countries where institutional capacity of decision-makers in the field of water resources is not sufficient. Attention of...

Achieving water security and availability for all is among the principle agenda of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To achieve the goal of water security, particularly in rapidly expanding cities, identification of safe and sustainable water resources is an absolute necessity. The paper conducts an exploratory investigation in the...