El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the most dominant interannual signal of climate variability and has a strong influence on climate over large parts of the world. In turn, it strongly influences many natural hazards (such as hurricanes and droughts) and their resulting socioeconomic impacts, including economic damage and loss of life. However, although ENSO is known to influence hydrology ...

Exploring how human activity impacts land use/cover change (LUCC) is a hot research topic in the field of geography and sustainability management. Researchers have primarily used socioeconomic variables to measure human activity. However, the human activity indexes mainly based on socioeconomic variables have a spatial resolution that is coarser than traditional LUCC datasets, which hinders a d...

To address devastating environmental crises and to improve human well-being, China has been implementing a number of national policies on payments for ecosystem services. Two of them, the Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP) and the Grain to Green Program (GTGP), are among the biggest programs in the world because of their ambitious goals, massive scales, huge payments, and potentially en...

This paper examines the role played by socioeconomic and spatial planning in the development of China’s first special economic zone (SEZ), Shenzhen. More specifically, it analyzes the impacts of socioeconomic fiveand ten-year plans and Master Layout Plans in Shenzhen’s metamorphosis from an industry-based SEZ relying on domestic investment (early 1980s) to a modern metropolis sustained by an ex...

Planned and involuntary resettlement after natural disasters has been a major policy in post-disaster reconstruction in developing countries over the past few decades. Studies show that resettlement can result in significant adverse impacts on the resettled population. Conversely, a well-planned and managed resettlement process can produce positive long-term development outcomes. This article p...

Almost nine million children under 5 years of age die every year. Diarrhea is considered to be the second leading cause of under-five mortality in developing countries. About one out of five deaths is caused by diarrhea. In this paper, we use the newly available data set District Level Household Survey 3 to quantify the impact of access to improved sanitation on diarrheal morbidity for children...