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The purpose of this paper is to identify bank deserts in the USA in 2009 and 2015, separately for inner city, suburban, and rural areas. It also identifies correlations between bank deserts, population characteristics, market competition, and payday lending restrictions, both cross-sectionally and over time.

FDIC data on bank office locations are used to identify bank deserts, defined as the 5 percent of census tracts with the greatest distance from the centroid to the nearest office. Those data are matched to both American Community Survey data to identify population characteristics, to a list of states with payday lending prohibitions, and to levels of market competition. An alternative measure of bank deserts corrects for population density. Geography is analyzed, mean characteristics compared, and random effects regressions capture static and dynamic correlates.

Population density explains approximately half of bank distance variance. Bank deserts appear more often in southern and western states, and expanded significantly in inner cities while contracting in rural areas. Regression results suggest that African Americans were overall and increasingly likely to live in bank deserts and Native Americans were overall more likely to live in rural bank deserts. Rural poverty is linked to bank deserts, and the effects of competition are complex.

The space for policy intervention exists in African American inner cities and Native American rural communities.

The relative measure of bank deserts is novel, as are dynamic estimates and random effects analysis of correlates.

This paper aims to examine the realities of food deserts and the vulnerable populations in urban areas in the USA; review underlying causes of these realities; and propose a set of solutions to address challenges facing vulnerable populations living in urban food deserts.

The paper presents a case study with a focus on a specific vulnerable population living in a food desert in the inner city of Richmond, Virginia.

While vulnerable populations and food deserts have much in common, in general, they both reflect, for specific groups of people, a failure to achieve or even having a chance to achieve the American dream. In particular, they reflect the economic, social, culture and education disenfranchisement of many citizens in society.

This exploratory paper and case study offers a beginning reference point to both understand and deal with urban food deserts and the vulnerable populations that reside there-in. Food deserts are a serious problem that is historically based and contemporarily reinforced by economic, social and cultural/community realities in society. By first understanding these realities, the paper calls for research and action.

The desert was always part of the Arabian culture and a way of life. After the discovery of oil during the 1940's, traditional Arab societies became urbanized and settled in newly constructed cities and towns. The desert became a place to visit for leisure and entertainment by locals and tourists. In Dubai, the desert is used as a tourist attraction for foreigners. In Kuwait, the desert is a seasonal attraction for families and groups during the winter time. This involves informal leisure activities that endanger the fragile desert environment and cause its pollution and degradation. This paper discusses the impact of informal desert tourism activities on the desert sustainability in Kuwait. It warns against the negative impact of current practices on the fragile desert environment as a result of informal local tourism activities. The paper explores successful examples from the region and the world in order to highlight aspects of successful interventions that blend in with the desert context. It suggests sustainable measures to deal with the planning and designing for desert ecotourism facilities that aim at protecting the fragile desert environment from deterioration and eventual extinction.

This paper attempts to delineate an adequate typology for desert ecolodges in the developing world by focusing on the Northern Saharan region as an area of study. To do so, it first situates ecotourism in the Sahara within the larger history of tourism in the region. Then, it studies its evolution and manifestations while concentrating on the challenges it is confronted to as well as the environmental impacts it inflicts, mainly due to the inadequacy of its accommodation facilities. Hence, the paper advances a new paradigm for desert ecolodges, stressing the importance of a comprehensive resource and waste management strategy. Other recommended features include sustainable building methods, community involvement, and nature conservation and education. Each one of these attributes is further analyzed in three successful case studies located in the Egyptian desert. The study of these cases reveal that in order to decrease their environmental footprint, desert ecolodges should put more efforts into integrating new energy and water harvesting technologies as well as establish a symbiotic relationship with the oasis landscape.

Previous research has extensively examined “food deserts,” where access to healthy food is limited. However, little is known of the buying behavior at the individual household level in terms of buying habits and consumption in these areas. The purpose of this paper is to determine to what extent other factors than access can account for the purchase of healthy food products, namely, fruits and vegetables.

This paper proposes to partially fill this gap through a qualitative (n=55) and quantitative (n=512) study of those people who are in charge of their household purchases in two food deserts in the city of Montreal.

Results show that geographical access to supermarkets is not the main factor fostering the purchase of healthy foods (fruits and vegetables). Indeed, food education (e.g. information, simple recipes, cooking classes), associated with a changing mediation process through product diversification (e.g. availability of local products in bulk) and supply (e.g. farmers) seems to be more significant.

Future studies could compare the results obtained through this study in different socio-demographic contexts. Longitudinal analyses could also increase the understanding of the social and commercial challenges.

In contrast to previous studies, the results show that geographical access to supermarkets is not the main factor fostering the purchase of fruits and vegetables. Indeed, food education (e.g. information, simple recipes, cooking classes), associated with a changing mediation process through product diversification (e.g. products in bulk) and supply (e.g. farmers) seem to be more significant.

The purpose of this paper is to trigger the preparation of an international development plan, which will aim to settle the deserts, which form a third of the area of the continents of the world.

This plan will enhance projects aimed to provide food to the present and future starving populations.

Warnings that starvation on a global scale is approaching were heard at the meeting of the World Summit on Food Security, held at the Food and Agriculture Organization Headquarters in Rome (16‐18 November 2009) and at the UN Copenhagen Conference (7‐18 December 2009). The warnings were based on the observations that global temperatures are increasing due to the ongoing and forecasted increase in green house gases, and because of the increase in the population in the developing countries.

The settling of the deserts will be based on the conceptual model of Progressive Development, which will bring about the greening of the deserts by the utilizing the existing soil reserves and water reserves below and adjacent to the thus far empty and desolate regions. The development will proceed stage by stage from the utilization of shallow groundwater resources to the deeper aquifers and later to diversion of rivers flowing into the sea adjacent to the borders of the deserts.

Development of renewable energy resources and technical education of local population and new settlers will progress simultaneously.

The plan revealed in the following paper is the original initiative of its writer.

This paper aims to study the Lut desert, also known as the Dasht–e–Lut, starting with a summary of its location as a large salt desert in southeastern Kerman, Iran, as well as its climate, being one of the world’s driest places. Next, a statistical analysis is performed based on a reasonable minimum level of 10 per cent. The computation of electric energy produced by sunlight in the studied region is, then, provided using a number of high-efficiency and suitable solar cells. Finally, the authors will compare the production of electrical energy to the consumption energy in Iran and Kerman province.

According to calculations of the present study and the analyses of the tables and charts provided, the use of solar energy and the amount of energy used in different areas was discussed. Lut desert in Iran is one of the touristic attractions of Kerman province: while only a very small area of this desert known as the Kalut is of interest to tourists, the vast remaining area of this desert is currently left without use. Lut and its surrounding towns and villages are not suitable for agricultural due to the lack of water in the region, and relatively poor people live within the area. The findings of this study showed that throughout the region, there is a very high potential for energy supply of Kerman and Iran.

The practical use of Lut desert potential in the production of electric energy from solar energy, besides its significant role in cost reductions, can also positively affect the living standards of local residents as well as job and income creation for the country. Efficient use of only 10 per cent of the area of Lut desert, via using its solar energy, can produce a considerable amount of energy for the region and for the country in large. Although the present study only investigated the solar energy of the region, it also has a high potential in wind energy and geothermal optimum use. The research team will, hence, continue its work on calculating the amount of energy generated from all types of renewable energy in this area. This paper showed that application of solar cells in this region is appropriate for providing a magnificent amount of electric-energy requirements of Kerman province and of Iran.

In recent years, Iran’s nuclear, oil and natural-gas industries have been the subject of intensifying sanctions from certain international communities. Now, the country wants to develop a sector in which it has more leeway, i.e. the renewable energy; wind and solar energies are always available, and no one can put sanctions on them. Also, to provide household electricity in remote areas (which are not connected to the mains electricity grid), energy storage is required for use of renewable energy. Usually, however, renewable energy is derived from the main electricity grid, and this means that as the mains electricity grid is organized so as to produce the exact amount of energy being consumed at that particular moment, the energy storage is mostly not applied. Energy production on the mains electricity grid is always set up as a combination of renewable-energy plants, as well as other power plants (e.g. the fossil-fuel power plants and nuclear power). This combination, nevertheless, is essential for this type of energy supply (i.e. the wind turbines, solar power plants, etc).

The growing rate of desertification in Northwestern China and Mongolia that is occurring as a result of the conflict between economic development and natural conservation has been demonstrated in many studies. There have, for example, been some large studies using variations in bi‐weekly normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) satellite images as a parameter for evaluating the vegetation dynamics in these areas. The purpose of this paper is to identify multi‐temporal variation in vegetated and non‐vegetated areas in remotely sensed satellite images to assess the status of desertification in East Asia.

Spatial data derived from these satellite images are applied to evaluate vegetation dynamics on a regional level, to identify the areas most vulnerable to desertification.

Analytical results indicate that the desert areas in East Asia are primarily distributed over Southern Mongolia, Central and Western Inner Mongolia, and Western China (the Taklimakan Desert). These desert areas expanded from 2000 to 2002, shrunk in 2003, then expanded again from 2003 to 2005. The areas most at risk for desertification are principally distributed in Southeastern Mongolia, and Eastern Inner Mongolia.

Simulation results based on data for deserts distributed throughout Northwestern China and Mongolia indicate that the proposed fuzzy model‐based method would be helpful for assessing and monitoring desertification. These analytical results will help administrators refine planning processes, define the boundaries of protected areas, and facilitate decisions for prioritizing areas for desertification protection.

Food deserts are an attractive metaphor, but because defining this phrase and actually identifying food deserts as geographic places are a contentious endeavour, it is more revealing to discuss related terms. Inherent in the debate around food deserts (i.e. how they are defined, if and where they exist) is the topic of access. The central purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that access is a more accurate and less misleading concept than food deserts when it comes to highlighting food inequalities.

Social exclusion, choice, food security, and public health are fields on which the paper draws. The proposition is that food security studies have entered a postmodern food security paradigm, which can readily be seen in US‐based community food security efforts.

Progressing beyond the initial attention‐grabbing nature of the food desert term, a conceptually thin foundation is discovered that impedes universal understanding and acknowledgment that areas of inadequate food access do exist. Food access, on the other hand, is an established phrase that has evolved and been applied in different arenas to address food security. Food access is a readily understood concept that can be tailored to specific applications; whether it is physical, economic, or informational food access.

It is proposed here that access is a more accurate and less misleading concept than food deserts when it comes to highlighting food inadequacies.

The last ten years have seen a gradual withdrawal of retail facilities from many local areas and the consequent growth of “shopping deserts” resulting in social and health disbenefits. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential for e‐shopping to fill the vacuum and to assist disadvantaged shoppers.

The paper uses prior published research to comment on the extent to which e‐retailing may be the shopping solution of the future?

The internet has limited potential to compensate for shopping deserts, as consumers who do not have a good range of physical shops within walking distance also tend to lack access to the internet.

The paper is based solely on prior research. The authors recommend action research that may hopefully help excluded shoppers to become more included by addressing the problems of access to e‐shopping.

Government, service providers and e‐retailers may consider interventions such as subsidised internet access, training and the provision of e‐cash.

The paper links research from diverse fields relating to shopping deserts, the digital divide, health, wellbeing, social and experiential aspects of (e‐)shopping.