This book exposes the key land use and environmental problems facing Kenya today due to lack of an appropriate national land use policy. The publication details how the air is increasingly being polluted, the water systems are diminishing in quantity and deteriorating in quality. The desertification process threatens the land and its cover. The soils are being eroded leading to siltation of the ocean and lakes. The forests are being depleted with impunity thus destroying the water catchments.

Globalisation and urbanisation trends in developing countries present both opportunities for growth and development on one hand while contributing to the complex myriad challenges of managing urbanisation on the other hand. Cities and urban areas play a critical in the development of a country. They provide platforms that incorporate intense combination of economic, cultural and political factors of a country or region. Nairobi city is Kenya’s economic capital and is a major economic hub in Africa.

Cities and Urban Areas play a crucial role as engines of development as well as centers of connectivity, creativity, innovation, and as service hubs for the surrounding areas. Kenya has experienced unprecedented urban growth. At independence the urban population was about 8%. This had grown to be about 40% by 2015. It is projected that by year 2030 at least half of the Kenyan population will be urbanized. The rapid rate of urbanization exerts increased pressure on authorities to meet the needs of growing urban populations.

These guidelines provide a basis for engagement between the County Governments as planning authorities responsible for preparing, approving and implementing County Spatial Plans and the National Land Commission as a monitoring and oversight agency over land use planning. The County Government Act 2012 at section 110(1)(a) stipulates that the County Spatial Plans shall give effect to the principles and objects of county planning and development contained in section 102 and 103 of the same Act.

This paper describes the development of a Land Information Management System (LIMS) for County Governments in Kenya. In the new Constitution 2010, devolution of some national government functions and formation of county governments was provided for. These invoked the development of new land laws to guide the devolution processes and procedures. According to the County Government Act 2012, all County Governments are supposed to develop digital Geographic Information System (GIS) based spatial plans and these calls for development of LIMS for and efficient breakthrough.

The need for affirmative action and the mainstreaming of the commons community plus a comprehensive strategy to secure indigenous and community land has become a major global concern of the 21st century. To achieve this will require out of the box reform mechanisms and the participation of the communities concerned, such that the reforms recognize and embrace indigenous systems and structures that offer avenues to secure collective rights, land use and management of commons resources; namely pastures, water and forests among others.

The story of urbanization in Kenya should be one of cautious optimism. As an emerging middle-income country with a growing share of its population living in urban areas and a governance shift toward devolution, the country could be on the verge of a major social and economic transformation. How it manages its urbanization and devolution processes will determine whether it can maximize the benefits of its transition to a middle-income country.

The Commission has been in the forefront of promoting good governance and accountability in the land sector. Progress in the land sector has been mixed. Through the effort of the government, support agencies and other stakeholders the Commission was able to devolve its function to the 47 counties through the County Land Management Boards (CLMBs). The CLMBs have in effect devolved land services throughout Kenya. However, achieving land, better land governance, accountability in the land sector and ensuring secure land rights for all Kenyan is still to be achieved.

The aim of the study was to determine the effects of land use management on changes in the fecal contamination of water in the Łyna River, one of the main lowland watercourses in the southern watershed of the Baltic Sea (northern Poland). A total of 120 water samples were collected in different seasons of 2011 and 2012 at 15 sites where the river intersected forest (FA), agricultural (AA), and urbanized (UA) areas.

Land-use land-cover (LULC) changes are one of the major threats to biodiversity worldwide, since their principal consequences are the loss, fragmentation or degradation of the habitat available for most species. Therefore, in order to provide guidelines for environmental management at the regional scale and thus reverse the trend in degradation, transformations of natural remnants into anthropogenic land uses must be identified and quantified.

This article analyses the impact of soil sealing associated with three decades of urban growth in the Mediterranean coastal municipality of Elche (Alicante, Spain) on local soil resources. Geographical Information System (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) techniques were used to obtain and analyse different types of thematic information relating to urban growth and soil resources (soil class, land use capability, and physiographic classes).