Rapid transformation processes occur in the Majority World, where most of the global population is living (estimated around ¾ of the global population), often deprived of access to infrastructure, services, exposed to hazards and degrading environmental conditions. The continuous urbanization in many African, Asian and Latin American cities is coupled with rapid socio-economic and demographic changes in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas. These changes often increase socio-economic fragmentation and existing disparities. According to the United Nations, of the 36 fastest growing cities (with an average annual growth rate of more than 6%), seven are located in Africa, while 28 are found in Asia. On top of the socio-economic transformations, the increasing impact of climate change is expected to increase local vulnerabilities. However, data to understand these transformation processes and relationships are either unavailable, scarce or come with high degrees of uncertainty. Earth Observation information and methods have a great potential to fill data gaps, but they are not exploited to their full potential. Most urban remote sensing studies in the Majority World focus on the primary cities, while not much is known about secondary cities, urbanizing zones or peri-urban areas.

This book studies mountains with a global perspective, like a complex topographic and topoclimatic mosaic organized in altitudinal belts that are influenced by a huge variability in slopes, soils, lithology and insolation. Furthermore, the presence of lower temperatures, higher precipitation and the seasonal presence of snow create conditions conductive to supporting various life forms and natural geomorphological and hydrological processes. The integration of environmental and human aspects highlights the impacts of human activities and climate fluctuations on soil hydrology, soil erosion, water resources, and landscape/landforms evolution. After presenting the way in which humans (from Prehistory to Alexander von Humboldt) discovered the mountains, subsequent chapters try to underline the importance of mountains in generating water resources and hydropower for lowlands, serving as biodiversity hotspots, and contributing to cultural diversity. The book delves into the role ofhuman actives in transforming the natural landscapes and creating new cultural landscapes. This exploration considers the significance of altitudinal belts in shaping the spatial and temporal organization of land uses which, in turn, have been determined by population growth and the development of regional and national markets.

This book aims to formulate recommendations for achieving a healthy neighborhood living environment for the middle-income people in China‘s suburbs. In China, the expeditious urbanization triggers the prosperous commodity housing development, which further grows with the spatial restructuring and socioeconomic transition. Residential suburbanization is generated, accompanied with the emergence of new-middle class and the change of lifestyle. However, the health effects of suburbanization in China are overlooked. This book investigates the health performance of suburban residents and the effects of suburban living on residents‘ health. This book also examines the resident-environment transaction modes to unfold the underlying mechanism of suburban living affecting residents’ health. Suburban residents had to passively adapt to their residential environment, which is the obstacle for achieving a health-promoting environment. The institutional dynamics determining the health performance of suburban living environment were addressed with the roles of governments, developers, planners, housing managers, residents‘ committee, and ordinary residents in commodity housing development. The book found no institutional support for the creation of health-promoting environments, especially with default of governments and excessive dependence on developers for public service facilities and the absence of civil society. Thus, the book proposes that institutional innovations are necessary in term of embedding the health dimension in all sectors of the society, enlisting collaboration between public and private sectors, and between health and non-health sectors, and thus cultivating the optimization of residents-environment transactions to create health-promoting environments.