The recent Rio+20 summit raised many issues of global environmental concern. Here we look at commitments and challenges faced by the world in the throes of rapid urbanization

Increasing urban surface temperature due to change of natural surfaces is one of the growing environmental problems in urban areas, especially in cities like Delhi. The present work is an attempt to assess the urban surface temperature in Delhi using remote sensing and GIS techniques. ASTER datasets of thermal bands were used to assess the land surface temperature (LST) using temperature emissivity separation technique. Ward-wise population density was calculated from the Census of India 2001 data to correlate the population density with LST.

This new study of nine coastal cities around the world published in the latest edition of journal Natural Hazards, says that Kolkata is among the most flood vulnerable cities in world and could experience coastal flooding as the city is built on river delta.

Utilising the modern social network theory, the present descriptive article has examined the art of urbanites’ ‘bowling alone’ in concrete jungles and its negative effect on their social and civic life.