Urban parks, forests and open space systems provide many amenities for city dwellers. Yet perceptions of public value may not incorporate all of the scientifically confirmed public goods and services of urban green space. Theory and methods of economic valuation have been used to derive green space values – including direct use, environmental services, hedonic pricing and human health estimatio...

population growth in urban areas is a world-wide phenomenon, particularly in developing countries, urbanization has been rapid in the past two decades, and such rapid urbanization is expected to continue in the coming years. while urbanization has provided opportunities for employment, education and socio-economic development, it has also brought about a number of adverse health problems. these...

Urban futures that are more resilient and sustainable require an integrated social-ecological system approach to urban policymaking, planning, management, and governance. In this article, we introduce the Urban Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (URBES) and the Cities and Biodiversity Outlook (CBO) Projects as new social-ecological contributions to research and practice on emerging urban resil...

Urban landscapes are the everyday environment for the majority of the global population, and almost 80 % of the Europeans live in urban areas. The continuous growth in the number and size of urban areas along with an increasing demand on resources and energy poses great challenges for ensuring human welfare in cities while preventing an increasing loss of biodiversity. The understanding of how ...

Urban development can impact environmental quality and ecosystem services well beyond urban extent. Many methods to map urban areas have been developed and used in the past, but most have simply tried to map existing extent of urban development, and all have been single-scale techniques. The method presented here uses a clustering approach to look beyond the extant urban area at multiple scales...

OBJECTIVE To determine the availability and quality of family planning services within health facilities throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). METHODS Data were collected for the cross-sectional study from April 2014 to June 2014 by the Ministry of Public Health. A total of 1,568 health facilities that reported data to the National Health Information System were selected by m...

BACKGROUND Disparities in use of healthcare services between rural and urban areas have been empirically attributed to several factors. This study explores the existence of this disparity and its implication for planning and managing healthcare delivery systems. OBJECTIVES The objectives determine the relative importance of the various predisposing, enabling, need and health services factors ...

Systematic conservation planning (SCP) deals with a delicate interplay of competing interests and has far-reaching impacts for all stakeholders and systems involved. While SCP has traditionally attempted to conserve ecosystem services that benefit ecological systems, public perceptions of conservation initiatives influence their ultimate feasibility and sustainability. In an attempt to balance ...