The main aim of this study is to assess university students’ perceptions of climate change (CC) and sustainable development (SD). It also reviews existing curricula of various degree programs and obtains students’ opinion on how to integrate these concepts into the curricula and improve teaching methods and students’ learning. In total, 400 students from two of the oldest and renowned public sector higher education institutions (HEIs) in Lahore, Pakistan participated in this study. The results revealed that students have better perceptions of CC than of SD even though very few degree programs cover these concepts in their curriculum. Generally, the students perceived that human beings’ interference with the natural settings through their development actions is the main reason for climate change. They prefer environmental protection over economic growth. It is concluded that the integration of courses on CC and SD and promoting action-oriented case study research in the curriculum of the degree programs being offered by the HEIs can help improve learning. Hence, the HEIs of developing countries with similar socio-economic contexts need to do more to train our future generation of professionals to facilitate achieving the goal of sustainable development.

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an important tool for making informed decisions about development projects to avoid or mitigate potential adverse impacts on the environment. Guidelines are prepared all over the world to facilitate consultants and stakeholders to meet the objectives of EIA and to prepare quality EIA reports. The Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency prepared environmental impact assessment guidelines for this purpose in 1997. However, the major issue is that, even after two decades, the guidelines have not been reviewed. This paper presents the outcome of research conducted on the contents and quality of the guidelines for the preparation of EIA reports. The methodology encompasses an extensive review of the literature as well as available guidelines and interviews with the selected consultants, using semi-structured interview schedules. Although the quality of current guidelines overall is found to be good, the likelihood they are followed is connected with them being updated regularly, taking on board opinion of EIA consultants and other stakeholders.

Affordable housing delivery is a global concern, especially in developing countries; in the same way, Pakistan is also facing this challenge due to haphazard urbanization. Governance failures, and socio-economic and cultural constraints make policy interventions difficult. This research synthesizes market, regulatory, governance and cultural factors to investigate the critical barriers of affordable housing delivery. To analyze this phenomenon, Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was performed. Formative and reflective constructs were evaluated using primary data from 200 professionals in Punjab, Pakistan. The findings show that while market and financial restrictions have no evident impact, policy and governance failure, institutional and regulatory impediments, and socio-cultural constraints have a considerable impact on housing affordability delivery. The model highlights the predominance of institutional and cultural variables over simply financial reasons, accounting for 77.8% of the variance in housing affordability delivery. The findings give vital insights to policymakers pursuing housing affordability solutions in developing countries.

Urban regeneration is viewed as a far-reaching field in urban planning. Urban regeneration contributes not just to set up new urban structures in urban communities, yet in moulding the urban communities as well. The long-term vision of urban regeneration projects along with transit corridors is to promote sustainable patterns of urban growth by ensuring all urban design features and creating higher densities along transit and non-motorized transit use. This research aims to assess the potential of urban regeneration along the route of Orange Line Metro Train. The primary data was gathered using in-depth interviews and structured questionnaires. All the 26 stations of Orange Line Metro train were divided into three equal stratums. Furthermore, the middle order station had been selected from all the three stratums and for each selected station a buffer was drawn of half of a kilometer radius and selected as a sample of the study area. Respondents were asked about their opinion regarding the significance level of the different urban design features of a sustainable urban regeneration project. The Cronbach’s alpha of the data collection instrument was calculated as 0.71, which is higher than the acceptable reliability coefficient. The validity test was completed by Principal component analysis. Varimax rotation was used for the rotation of components. KMO adequacy test was 0.707, which must be more than 0.5 to retain the variables, and the variables with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure less than 0.5 must be excluded from the study. Bartlett’ Test was significant at p<.05. The significance index of urban design features for sustainable urban regeneration projects had been calculated. Overall, the necessary attributes of sustainable urban regeneration project were found. The research provides the priority areas of urban regeneration as per the key stakeholders along the Orange Line Metro Train Route. Keywords: Urban regeneration, Light Rail Transit (LRT), urban design features, mixed development, security against crimes, price premier

Planned gated and non-gated communities have appeared rapidly all over the world due to the public amenities and quality of life they offer. It is generally assumed that gated communities provide better security as compared to non-gated communities. However, population growth and urban sprawl have led to many social and physiological issues including the death of old city traditions, community identity, and lack of the sense of community (SOC). Thus, modern urban development faces the challenge of meeting the habitation and social needs of people with lesser face-to-face interaction and more mobile and fluid ways of communication. Lahore is the second largest city of Pakistan. It has experienced the growth of private sector led gated communities over several years. This research aims to compare their physical characteristics, as well as the perception of security, extent of social interaction, and the sense of community among their residents. For this purpose, the data of interviews with the residents of 4 selected gated and non-gated communities of Lahore was collected. The findings revealed that the sense of community is strongly associated with the extent of social interaction in both gated and non-gated communities. Contrary to what the literature generally suggests, this study found a higher sense of security among the residents of non-gated communities than gated communities. Finally, it was concluded that the participation of the residents in community development and management activities would promote more socially cohesive and vibrant communities.