Based on data collected from a representative national sample, India Human Development Survey 2005, this paper investigates the links between obesity among children and among adults with a number of socio economic characteristics as well as household and location specific variables. Both child and adult obesity are far from negligible, which is a matter of concern, given the links between obesi...

Although urbanisation is a major cause of land-use change worldwide, towns and cities remain relatively understudied ecosystems. Research into urban ecosystem service provision is still an emerging field, yet evidence is accumulating rapidly to suggest that the biological carbon stores in cities are more substantial than previously assumed. However, as more vegetation carbon densities are deriv...

The challenges of rapid urbanisation in large parts of Africa are beyond the capacity of local government to manage. The paper explores the arguments for a national urban policy to complement local strategies, reflecting the unique power of the central state and the special circumstances of cities. With appropriate support, urbanisation could become a more positive force for economic and human ...

www.ruaf.org Maricopa County in Arizona, which includes the city of Phoenix and the surrounding suburban areas, is currently the fourth most populous county in the country and among the fastest growing(1). Rapid urbanisation has put a great deal of pressure on agriculture, which has historically been very important in the county. According to the 2007 agricultural census, total farmland decline...

The drivers (social) and pressures (physical) of marine debris have typically been examined separately. We redress this by using social and beach surveys at nine Tasmanian beaches, across three coastlines and within three categories of urbanisation, to examine whether people acknowledge that their actions contribute to the issue of marine debris, and whether these social drivers are reflected i...

The world is becoming urban. The UN predicts that the world's urban population will almost double from 3·3 billion in 2007 to 6·3 billion in 2050. Most of this increase will be in developing countries. Exponential urban growth is having a profound effect on global health. Because of international travel and migration, cities are becoming important hubs for the transmission of infectious disease...

The phenomenon of rapid urbanisation across the world has become a topic of increased scholarly inquiry. Yet, little attention has been paid to how urban growth affects countries’ food security and whether this association is modified by a country’s level of development. The present study aims to fill this lacuna by examining the association between urbanisation and food security applying stati...

This review examines existing research on the issues raised by the presence of internally displaced people (IDPs) in an urban context such as that of Nairobi, Kenya. The review explores historical and present patterns of displacement in the broader context of Nairobi’s urbanisation processes. It aims to build on the current understanding of how IDPs live in the urban environment and relate with...

The link between urbanicity and the development of psychiatric disorders is well established. Recently, Kristina Sundquist and colleagues (2004) showed once again, with a strong study design, that there is a link between degree of urbanisation and first admission for psychosis. For men, the risk of first admission for psychosis was 68% higher in the most densely populated areas of Sweden than i...

OBJECTIVE To describe how urbanisation influences the nutrition and health transition in South Africa by using data from the THUSA (Transition and Health during Urbanisation of South Africans) study. DESIGN The THUSA study was a cross-sectional, comparative, population-based survey. SETTING The North West Province of South Africa. SUBJECTS In total, 1854 apparently healthy volunteers, men...