Rapid urbanization is reshaping peri-urban landscapes worldwide, with significant implications for agricultural lands and local livelihoods. This study investigates the drivers and consequences of physical urban expansion and land-use changes in Tulu Bolo town, Oromia region, Ethiopia. Employing a descriptive design with mixed quantitative and qualitative approaches, data were collected from 166 households using semi-structured questionnaires, interviews, field observations and focus group discussions, supplemented by secondary sources. Results reveal that urban growth has led to substantial loss of farmland and financial, natural, physical and human assets among peripheral farming communities. The spatial analysis results showed that Tulu Bolo town’s urban built-up environment rapidly altered, negatively affecting the area coverage of farmland and grassland. In this regard, the area covered by built-up space expanded by 19.2%, while that of farmland and grassland decreased by 20.7% between 2002 and 2026. Residents expressed dissatisfaction with urban development and felt marginalized in the planning process. The study underscores the urgent need for inclusive urban governance that integrates stakeholders, particularly farmers, into planning decisions and establishes clear policies for land expropriation and compensation. By addressing these challenges, local authorities can promote sustainable urban expansion while safeguarding the livelihoods and well-being of affected communities.
Political ecology gains salience by interrogating the intersectionalities that produce various ecologies, especially water in urban landscapes. This article locates and reads such intersectionalities, especially relating to youth and gender as they navigate everyday multiplicities that consider water as a site and subject of contestation. It focuses on the theory of urban water as a hybrid socio-natural phenomenon and the cycle of water and society as mutually co-constitutive. Drawing on the ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two neighbourhoods of a Global South city, the article discusses how spaces of inclusion and exclusion are co-constitutive in everyday urban negotiations. It postulates how urban ecology is mediated by the social class of youth, their mobility and the production of high-tech spaces. Their water experiences are further interwoven with the dimensions of water safety and discourses surrounding it. While the flow of urban water limits its access and use, the youth have demonstrated resilience and negotiated their access and use of it through their everyday practices. Broadly, this article contributes to the understanding that water is more than just a product of nature; it has a socio-nature which is a product of multiple complex entanglements and intersections of space, social class, gender, mobility and the subjectivities of the young.
This article, based on household panel data collected from slum surveys in the national capital of India, Delhi, aims at assessing the phenomenon of mobility and its determinants in the context of the city’s slums. It notes that mobility occurred in a highly limited sense and, second, the extent of mobility is not uniform across slum households, which, in the literature, is interpreted as time-independent mobility. The article also envisages changes in terms of overall well-being rather than reflecting only on income mobility. It tries to identify the determinants of mobility through various econometric models, and given the city’s environment, individual-specific factors such as educational attainment are important. Even within the city, activities and labour market characteristics vary widely across areas, and the outcomes in terms of mobility tend to be different, reflecting physical segmentation of the labour market, mobility constraints and variations in individual motivational drive.
Urban expansion threatens groundwater sustainability, yet regional-scale assessments can mask localized impacts. This study presents a GIS-based multi-criteria framework to quantify this 'paradox of scale', assessing the conflict between urban growth and the potential of groundwater recharge at Kahramanmaras & cedil;, T & uuml;rkiye, during the period 2000-2025. Using open-source datasets (GHSL, CHIRPS and SoilGrids), natural recharge potential was modelled, and annual loss attributable to urbanization was quantified. Although the regional mean groundwater recharge potential index (GRPI) declined only marginally (0.449 -> 0.447) during this period, spatial analysis revealed a disproportionate, effectively irreversible loss within the most critical recharge zones. In total, 10.7 km & sup2; (3.55%) of top-priority 'hotspot' areas were converted to urban land, with losses unevenly distributed; the faster-urbanizing district forfeited a larger share of its hotspots. These findings indicate that reliance on regional averages is inadequate for sustainable planning. The resulting hotspot map provides a decision-ready tool to prioritize conservation of strategic recharge zones and strengthen long-term water security in rapidly urbanizing regions.
