Poor land records, rampant speculation and weak or corrupt implementation of regulations means that cities are using land inefficiently

WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Urban areas are expected to grow by 80 percent by the end of the next decade, and unless they grow up rather than out, they could be in trouble, according to a new report from the World Resources Institute and Yale University.

A growing population and urbanisation are expected to support growth of the vertical farming industry, new research suggests. Are vertical farms a sustainable solution?

Cities exercise power in many areas that touch on human rights, and growing urban inequalities mean advocates must focus more attention on municipal governments.

'Children should be a focus of urban planning, yet in many cities they are forgotten'

LONDON - Millions of poor urban children are more likely to die before their fifth birthday than those living in rural areas, according to a U.N. study out on Tuesday that challenges popular assumptions behind the global urbanisation trend.

With growing slums and emissions - but limited capacity to tackle the problems - these cities are where action will be crucial, experts say

BARCELONA - The future that fast-growing cities in South Asia and Africa choose - cleaner and safer, or dirtier and more dangerous - will be pivotal to efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, scientists said in a key U.N. report this week.

Many Indians face untold hardships due to lack of good shelter including health issues. Those in cities live in a slum close-by or stay far-away where there is no livelihood and few commuting options.

According to the State of the Low-Income Housing Finance Market 2018 report, with increasing urbanization and the lack of planning for housing, there is an estimated shortage of 10-12 million low-income homes, along with 26-37 million urban poor who live in poor quality informal homes. .

Argentina’s president once talked of forcing slums out of the city – now he wants to deliver residents the deeds to their land. But will it help?

“It was really bad in there – I mean, it’s literally a ruin,” says Romina Vargas of Argentina’s most famous abandoned building, where she once lived. “There was lots of contaminated water on the lower floors, there were no sewers, and kids would come and take drugs inside. It’s good that it’s coming down.”

ULAANBAATAR - In a damp, single room in a disused bathhouse in the Sansar area of eastern Ulaanbaatar, 90-year-old Yuule Vandan cares for her disabled son and worries how he will survive without her.

Yuule moved out of a shared flat in an old Soviet barracks over three years ago while it was redeveloped but the project was shelved and she now struggles to pay 100,000 tugrik ($42) rent from a state pension of 250,000 tugrik for their one room.

A 300-year-old community in Bangkok will have its homes demolished as part of the city's modernisation plans

BANGKOK  - For more than two decades, a community of more than 300 people living next to an old fort in Bangkok staved off drug dealers keen to extend their turf, and city officials eager to tear down their homes and build a park to draw more tourists.

Gujarat, one of the fastest urbanising states in India, seems to be doing so against the wishes of its people

As you move west from the crowded old neighbourhoods of inner-city Ahmedabad, the roads broaden, buildings rise taller and BMWs line the streets. Old-timers here remember watching these wealthy, modern neighbourhoods engulf the countryside – the lush fields of wheat and corn that are now gone.

Those who live in villages on the city’s fringes today fear that the same will happen to them.

HEBRON, Israel — Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman granted Aug.

BHUBANESWAR: Four bills including the much-awaited Odisha Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Bill, 2017 were passed in the Assembly on Wednesday.Introducing the Odisha Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Bill, 2017 in the Assembly, Housing and Urban Development Minister Niranjan Pujari said it is a historical decision of the State Government to provide land and housing units to the urban poor living in different slums. The Bill will provide land to slum dwellers residing in Municipalities and Notified Area Councils (NACs) of the State.