ALBERT

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 123〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Adriana Camacho, Emily Conover〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Small-scale farmers in developing countries often make production and sale decisions based on imprecise, informal, and out-of-date sources of information, such as family, neighbors, or tradition. Lack of timely and accurate information on climate and prices can lead to inefficiencies in the production, harvesting, and commercialization of agricultural products, which in turn can affect farmers’ revenues and well-being. We did a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) experiment with 500 small-scale farmers in a rural area of Colombia where there is nearly full mobile phone usage and coverage. Treated farmers received around 8 text messages per week with prices in the main markets for crops grown in the region, and customized weather forecasts. Compared to a control group, we find that treated farmers were more likely to report that text messages provide useful information for planting and selling, and more likely to always read their messages, indicating an increase in appreciation and use of this type of technology. We also found heterogeneous effects by farmer size. Smaller farmers try to make use of the intervention by planting more crops for which they have price information. Larger farmers seek new markets and increase conversations with other producers. Despite these positive effects, we do not find a significant difference in farmers reporting a price, price differential with the market price, or sale prices received. Our results indicate that farmers are amenable to learning and using new technologies, but that the introduction of these technologies do not always translate into short-run welfare improvements for them. Given the increased interest in incorporating information and communication technologies into agriculture, our findings indicate that prior to a large-scale implementation it is necessary to better understand what prevents farmers from more directly profiting from this new information.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: October 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 50〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Zhengrong Li, Haowei Xing, Godfried Augenbroe〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈p〉Although there have been numerous studies on the evaluation of models that estimate sky diffuse radiation on inclined surfaces, it is still difficult for investigators to select from available sky diffuse radiation models for urban microclimate and building performance simulation. This is due to the fact that results from different studies are not consistent, or even contradictive, which indicates the fact that the evaluation criterion itself has a great effect on the performance of the model.〈/p〉 〈p〉To explore the effect of different evaluation criteria on the performance rating of the models, four evaluation methods are applied in this paper: diffuse irradiance on facades with respect to sky condition, diffuse irradiance on facades with respect to orientation, diffuse irradiance distribution among sky dome with respect to sky condition and diffuse irradiance on buildings in obstructed environment. Based on a statistical test on available data, Igawa model is considered to be the most accurate and appropriate model for urban and building energy simulation. Besides, an evaluation criterion appropriate for screening sky diffuse models for urban and building energy simulation is proposed. Furthermore, potential errors that may occur in the measurement and the corresponding quality control is presented.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: October 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 50〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): D. Koteswara Rao, D. Chandrasekharam〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Sustainable conservation of natural resources has become a primary concern for urban cities, globally as they are centers of consumption and economy. Due to population growth, cities depend more on imports of food, energy, water, and services from all over the globe, and consume more virtual water than direct water, because of their food habits and lifestyle. Most of the imported goods are water intensive and pose challenges in tracing the source of virtual water. The goal of this research is to develop a general framework to assess the water footprint (WF) of a typical city in India using existing databases. A consumer-centric approach has been adopted for assessing WF in Hyderabad Metro Development Area (HMDA). The variation of the WF across economic classes of consumers is also analyzed. The WF is estimated based on four broad categories: 1) food consumption, 2) fossil fuels based energy, 3) electric power, and 4) direct water. Average WF of HMDA region is 1041 m〈sup〉3〈/sup〉/cap/year (2852 LPCD), in which 70% (1986 LPCD) of WF was consumed by food, 25% (744 LPCD) by electric power, only 4% (121 LPCD) is from direct water consumption and surprisingly the contribution from fossil fuel WF to total per capita WF of HMDA area is less than 1%.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 5 July 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Shuqin Chen, Xiyong Zhang, Shen Wei, Tong Yang, Jun Guan, Wenxiao Yang, Lijuan Qu, Yunqing Xu〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Accurate grasp of district power demand is of great significance to both sizing of district power supply and its operation optimization. In this study, an index system has been established and visualized through a Geographic Information System, for revealing both temporal and spatial characteristics of district power loads caused by heating/cooling systems, including load level and fluctuation characteristics, spatial distribution of electric loads, and load coupling relationships between individual buildings and the district. Principal component analysis was applied to identify the buildings with significant impact on district load management. Using this method, the spatial-temporal characteristics of electric loads caused by heating in one university campus in China were analyzed. The results showed that building type and the operation modes had great effects on the level and volatility of the district electric load caused by heating. Buildings with high load levels and strong coupling with the peak district electric load, such as academic buildings, often had a major impact on the power demand of the district. Therefore, they were considered as key targets for energy-saving renovation and operation optimization. Buildings with large load fluctuation, such as teaching buildings, could contribute to the peak load shaving by adjusting the heating systems’ operation.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: October 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 50〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Shuo-Jun Mei, Zhiwen Luo, Fu-Yun Zhao, Han-Qing Wang〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Urban ventilation is important for building a healthy urban living environment. 2-D CFD simulation has been used widely for street canyon ventilation due to its high computational efficiency, but its applicability for a 3-D simulation has never been studied. This paper tried to answer the question: if and under what conditions, the widely-adopted 2-D CFD simulations on street canyon ventilation can represent a 3-D scenarios? 3-D simulations on street canyons with various street lengths and corresponding 2-D simulations are carried out with RNG 〈em〉k〈/em〉-〈em〉ε〈/em〉 model. Our study identified two important ventilation mechanism for controlling ventilation and dispersion in a 3-D street canyon, i.e., canyon vortex on the canyon top and the corner vortices at the street ends. The relative importance of these two driving forces will change with the street length/street width ratio (〈em〉B/W〈/em〉). For isolated street canyon, when 〈em〉B/W〈/em〉 is higher than 20 (for 〈em〉H/W〈/em〉 = 1) and 70 (〈em〉H/W〈/em〉 = 2), the street canyon ventilation will be dominated by canyon vortex, and 3-D street canyon ventilation could be simplified as a 2-D case. For multiple street canyon, the threshold of 〈em〉B/W〈/em〉 will become 20 when 〈em〉H/W〈/em〉 = 1, and 50 when 〈em〉H/W〈/em〉 = 2. The findings in this study could improve our approaches for simulating urban ventilation.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: October 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 50〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Gaofeng Gu, Dujuan Yang, Tao Feng, Harry Timmermans〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The increasing shift of individuals to use new electric mobility tools like electric cars (EV) and electric bikes has changed household energy expenditure. It may also affect households’ investments in renewable energy equipment, i.e. solar panels, heat pumps. Relatively little research has been conducted on how the decision to purchase electric vehicles affects the decision to invest in home renewable energy equipment. This paper, therefore, aims to examine the effects of mobility tools decisions on the intention to invest in solar panels and heat pumps, based on the data collected through a stated choice experiment. A mixed logit model is estimated to capture unobserved heterogeneity among individuals. Results show that mobility tools significantly influence the choice of home renewable energy equipment. Households who prefer to purchase electric vehicles have a higher probability to invest in solar panels and heat pumps than households who prefer other mobility tools. In addition, EV adopters’ intention to invest in solar panels are stronger than the intention to invest in heat pumps. This suggests that electric vehicle users are likely the early adopters of solar panels.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: October 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 50〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Heictor Correia Maioli, Raíssa Corrêa de Carvalho, Denise Dumke de Medeiros〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The increase in population concentration in large cities is a trend in the world, which brings several problems. In the context of urban mobility, bicycle sharing systems deserve special mention due to the impact and growth worldwide. The dissemination and success of these systems are also linked to aspects related to quality in their provision. Thus, this paper aims to conduct a study in the context of bicycle sharing to help managers to stimulate the use of this service and contribute to the development of sustainable cities. The SERVPERF tool was adapted and used to assess the quality of bicycle sharing service, in addition to identify which aspects impact on users’ satisfaction. This approach is innovative since there is a gap in the literature about customer satisfaction analyzes and aspects related to the quality of bicycle sharing service. In this way, this study can contribute to the dissemination of this service and to the solution of urban mobility problems by identifying the aspects considered as most important for the customers and thus improving these aspects. Therefore, the bicycle sharing system may have the increasingly use and will help to reduce urban mobility problems.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 5 July 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Sorin M.S. Krammer, Alfredo Jiménez〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉We posit that the investments in political connections made by a firm in an emerging market will impact differently its propensity to introduce radical and incremental innovations. In addition, we argue that this effect will be moderated by alternate non-market firm strategies, such as bribery. Using a dataset of more than 9000 firms in 30 emerging economies from Eastern Europe and Central Asia we find that political connections increase the probability of radical innovation but have no significant impact on incremental innovation. Moreover, larger bribing reduces the positive impact of political connections on radical innovation. Our results confirm the importance of political connections for firm activities, but also caution firms on their heterogeneous impact on various types of innovations, and their detrimental interplay with other non-market strategies.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 123〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Alwin Keil, Archisman Mitra, Amit K. Srivastava, Andrew McDonald〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Sustainable intensification (SI) approaches to agricultural development are urgently needed to meet the growing demand for crop staples while protecting ecosystem services and environmental quality. However, SI initiatives have been criticized for neglecting social welfare outcomes. A recent review found that better-off farmers benefitted disproportionately from SI and highlighted the dearth of studies assessing the equity of outcomes. In this study, we explore the social inclusiveness of zero-tillage (ZT) wheat adoption in Bihar, India. ZT is a proven SI technology for enhancing wheat productivity while boosting profitability and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural machinery in the densely populated Indo-Gangetic Plains. With an average landholding size of 0.39 ha, most farmers in Bihar depend on custom-hiring services to access the technology. While service provision models should foster inclusive growth by reducing financial barriers to technology adoption, early evidence suggested that smallholders remained at a disadvantage. Building on this previous research, we use a panel dataset from 961 wheat-growing households that spans a six-year period to analyze ZT adoption dynamics over time while accounting for the role of social networks and access to service provision. Using a heckprobit approach to correct for non-exposure bias, we compare determinants of ZT awareness and use in 2012 and 2015. We apply a multinomial logit model to identify determinants of early adoption, recent adoption, non-adoption, and dis-adoption. Furthermore, we explore the quality of ZT services as an additional dimension of socially-inclusive technology access. We find that the strong initial scale bias in ZT use declined substantially as awareness of the technology increased and the service economy expanded. Land fragmentation replaced total landholding size as a significant adoption determinant, which also affected the quality of ZT services received. Hence, farmers with small but contiguous landholdings appear to have gained a significant degree of access over time. We conclude that early-stage assessments of SI may be misleading, and that private sector-based service provision can contribute to socially inclusive development outcomes as markets mature.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 123〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Chiara Ravetti, Mare Sarr, Daniel Munene, Tim Swanson〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉This paper analyses the ways in which ethnic identity and labour institutions shape favouritism and discrimination among workers. We conduct a lab experiment in the field with South African coal miners from various ethnic groups and with different trade union membership status. Our analysis suggests that union identity and ethnic identity are two social constructs that operate in a distinct and opposite fashion. Unionization acts as a factor of workers solidarity beyond the confine of union membership. Conversely, ethnicity operates as the linchpin through which discrimination among workers is infused not only between ethnic majority and minorities, but also within the majority group itself. We find that the widespread practice of subcontracting in the mining sector exacerbates ethnic discrimination among workers both between and within ethnic groupings.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 123〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Vanesa Jordá, Miguel Niño-Zarazúa〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Despite the growing interest in global inequality, assessing inequality trends is a major challenge because individual data on income or consumption is not often available. Nevertheless, the periodic release of certain summary statistics of the income distribution has become increasingly common. Hence, grouped data in form of income shares have been conventionally used to construct inequality trends based on lower bound approximations of inequality measures. This approach introduces two potential sources of measurement error: first, these estimates are constructed under the assumption of equality of incomes within income shares; second, the highest income earners are not included in the household surveys from which grouped data is obtained. In this paper, we propose to deploy a flexible parametric model, which addresses these two issues in order to obtain a reliable representation of the income distribution and accurate estimates of inequality measures. This methodology is used to estimate the recent evolution of global interpersonal inequality from 1990 to 2015 and to examine the effect of survey under-coverage of top incomes on the level and direction of global inequality. Overall, we find that item non-response at the top of the distribution substantially biases global inequality estimates, but, more importantly, it might also affect the direction of the trends.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 123〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Ben Siegelman, Nora Haenn, Xavier Basurto〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉This paper relates how fishermen in San Evaristo on Mexico’s Baja peninsula employ fabrications to strengthen bonds of trust and navigate the complexities of common pool resource extraction. We argue this trickery complicates notions of social capital in community-based natural resource management, which emphasize communitarianism in the form of trust. Trust, defined as a mutual dependability often rooted in honesty, reliable information, or shared expectations, has long been recognized as essential to common pool resource management. Despite this, research that takes a critical approach to social capital places attention on the activities that foster social networks and their norms by arguing that social capital is a process. A critical approach illuminates San Evaristeño practices of lying and joking across social settings and contextualizes these practices within cultural values of harmony. As San Evaristeños assert somewhat paradoxically, for them “lies build trust.” Importantly, a critical approach to this case study forces consideration of gender, an overlooked topic in social capital research. San Evaristeña women are excluded from the verbal jousting through which men maintain ties supporting their primacy in fishery management. Both men’s joke-telling and San Evaristeños’ aversion to conflict have implications for conservation outcomes. As a result, we use these findings to help explain local resistance to outsiders and external management strategies including land trusts, fishing cooperatives, and marine protected areas.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 10 April 2018〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): John Rice, Nigel Martin〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Smart Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is envisaged to provide the capabilities to plan, design, construct, operate and manage Australia's key infrastructure. With over 75% of Australia's population living in cities and accessing public and private goods and services, ICT is positioned as a strategic resource for smart infrastructure developments. In this study, international and domestic stakeholder inputs on the future role of smart ICT in advancing Australia's infrastructure development and operations were crowdsourced for analysis. The study identifies several forms of smart ICT (e.g. building information modelling software) enabled infrastructure that possesses potential to deliver over A$9 billion per annum in domestic economic improvements, with commensurate advancement of communities, regions and urban environments. However, to be effective these smart ICT require enablement through open and interoperable data, sound governance and policy, and government leadership and coordination using dedicated resources. While smart infrastructure development is presently slow and lumbering, the identified smart ICT present as valuable strategic technologies for change and development in domestic communities.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 24 April 2018〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Rahat Iqbal, Faiyaz Doctor, Brian More, Shahid Mahmud, Usman Yousuf〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Big Data has significant impact in developing functional smart cities and supporting modern societies. In this paper, we investigate the importance of Big Data in modern life and economy, and discuss challenges arising from Big Data utilization. Different computational intelligence techniques have been considered as tools for Big Data analytics. We also explore the powerful combination of Big Data and Computational Intelligence (CI) and identify a number of areas, where novel applications in real world smart city problems can be developed by utilizing these powerful tools and techniques. We present a case study for intelligent transportation in the context of a smart city, and a novel data modelling methodology based on a biologically inspired universal generative modelling approach called Hierarchical Spatial-Temporal State Machine (HSTSM). We further discuss various implications of policy, protection, valuation and commercialization related to Big Data, its applications and deployment.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 12 April 2018〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): F.W. Geels, A. McMeekin, B. Pfluger〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Social acceptance and political feasibility are important issues in low-carbon transitions. Since computer models struggle to address these issues, the paper advances socio-technical scenarios as a novel methodological tool. Contributing to recent dialogue approaches, we develop an eight-step methodological procedure that produces socio-technical scenarios through various interactions between the multi-level perspective and computer models. As a specific contribution, we propose ‘transition bottlenecks’ as a methodological aid to mediate dialogue between qualitative MLP-based analysis of 〈em〉contemporary〈/em〉 dynamics and quantitative, model-generated 〈em〉future〈/em〉 pathways. The transition bottlenecks also guide the articulation of socio-technical storylines that suggest how the social acceptance and political feasibility of particular low-carbon innovations can be improved through social interactions and endogenous changes in discourses, preferences, support coalitions and policies. Drawing on results from the 3-year PATHWAYS project, we demonstrate these contributions for the UK electricity system, developing two low-carbon transition pathways to 2050 commensurate with the 2 °C target, one based on technological substitution (enacted by incumbent actors), and one based on broader system transformation (enacted by new entrants).〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: October 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 147〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Emrah Karakilic〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The transition from industrial capitalism to cognitive capitalism and the rise of the digital revolution have brought the subject of intellectual property rights to the forefront as a controversial issue. This paper holds that the theoretical apparatus and concepts belonging to the industrial phase of capitalism largely fall short with respect to the repercussions that intellectual property rights regime yields. Embracing the methodological precept that social theory must be moulded in order to address the contours of contemporary social reality, this paper engages in an autonomist Marxist update on the concept of intellectual property rights. It ultimately challenges the “intellectual property rights are a socio-economic need” thesis and speculatively argues that the current system of intellectual property rights, directed politically towards the enclosure of commons, constitutes a structural contradiction by i) forming a basis for a social crisis in terms of the established relations of production, and ii) curtailing a part of the socio-economic opportunities for innovation, profit-making, and growth.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 9 April 2018〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Daniela Maresch, Johannes Gartner〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Disruptive technological change can contribute to a more abundant world. However, potentially disruptive technologies often struggle to significantly influence practice. One prominent example is additive manufacturing (AM). Although AM is often regarded as the next great technological revolution in waiting, it has not yet established itself on a large scale in many fields of application. We investigate the reasons behind those challenges by looking at the various fields in which AM is applied and relating them to the specific challenges AM faces, as well as the opportunities it offers in those fields. Our findings rely on a multi-perspective technology foresight process that is based on a discourse analytic approach and that comprises data tomography covering the biggest German-language online magazine on AM and qualitative interview data collected from a range of AM stakeholders. The findings provide an empirically well-founded evaluation and explanation of the link between the challenges and opportunities offered by AM and the extent to which this disruptive technology is leveraged in specific fields. The findings prompt recommendations on how new potentially disruptive technologies can foster abundance in traditional, well established market economies based on the example of the well-developed but traditional market economy of Austria.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 24 April 2018〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Måns Nilsson, Adis Dzebo, Georgia Savvidou, Katarina Axelsson〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Quantitative models of transitions, such as energy systems models and integrated assessment models, do not usually represent social processes, institutions and politics. Their view of societal transitions, along with the governance required to drive them, is therefore limited. Socio-technical systems approaches, in contrast, represent the social side but lack a quantitative view of the future system. This paper addresses this by bridging an energy systems model with socio-technical systems analysis and a local action study, analysing the future transition of the residential heating system in Sweden. The paper focuses on demand-side shifts that would drive a transition to a highly efficient, low-carbon heating system until 2050. A conceptual framework for bridging three approaches is introduced and applied. For example, niche-innovations identified in the socio-technical study are implemented as scenario options in the model. Landscape signals are external drivers of the scenario, and the regime study identifies barriers and governance requirements. The local action study provides insights into community attitudes affecting niches and regime change. Our results indicate that the linking of approaches is meaningful, in that it provides an enriched understanding of future systems change in many dimensions. Further research is required using a variety of models on a variety of domains or sectors to draw more generalizable lessons about bridging modelling and social science-based approaches for transition studies.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 123〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Sara Geenen〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉By zooming in on the concept of ‘local content’, this article speaks to the debate on extractive industries and development. It challenges two fundamental assumptions of the mainstream local content literature: that production linkages will develop if an enabling environment is created, and that local content is beneficial for local people. Based on almost 600 interviews and focus groups in four mining concessions in Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) it focuses on how local content policies are translated into concrete practices – more particularly around the granting of contracts and employment. In doing so it unravels the 〈em〉political〈/em〉 dimensions of local content policies and their 〈em〉structural embeddedness〈/em〉 in large-scale extractivist projects. It is argued that local content policies are implemented in complex political arenas, where the power holders use them as political instruments to enhance profit accumulation and control rents. Moreover they are embedded in the structural dynamics that permeate large-scale extractivist projects, producing (new) patterns of exclusion.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: October 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 50〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Zhijian Liu, Di Wu, Yuanwei Liu, Guangya Jin, Qiaomei Wang, Zhonghe Han, Hancheng Yu〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Low energy buildings are an efficient approach to meet space heating requirements and saving energy. Studies of low energy buildings mainly focus on cold climate regions. However, there is less research on the feasibility of low energy buildings on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau located in a severely cold climatic region. Therefore, a low energy building equipped with an integrated heating system was built on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The performance of the low energy building was quantitatively evaluated by field measurement and dynamic TRNSYS simulation. To be specific, the indoor temperature and relative humidity were measured, and further served as the data to verify the accuracy of the simulated results. The results show that the temperature and humidity were above 20 °C and 40% in the heating season, in accordance with the regulated low energy building standard (DB63/T1682-2018). According to the TRNSYS simulation, the hourly indoor temperature and relative humidity were generally in the range of 20–24 °C and 34–56%, respectively, in the heating season, with an energy demand of 16.1 kW h/(m〈sup〉2〈/sup〉 year). Overall, the building performance meets the local low energy building standard (DB63/T1682-2018). Therefore, a passive building with integrated heating system assistance is feasible for pleasant indoor comfort on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. These findings could explore the application potential of low energy buildings in severe cold climate areas.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: September 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 146〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Marco Capasso, Teis Hansen, Jonas Heiberg, Antje Klitkou, Markus Steen〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Governments in countries across the world increasingly adopt the “green growth” discourse to underline their ambition for the greening of their economies. The central tenet of this narrative is the economic opportunities rather than challenges arising from the pursuit of environmental sustainability. Our paper synthesises insights from 113 recent scientific articles, dealing with both environmental issues and economic growth, as well as innovation. Our ambition is exploratory in attempting to take stock of heterogeneous contributions across the spectrum of social science. The articles have been reviewed with a focus on six themes, derived from current discussions in economic geography and transition studies: skills, technology, physical resources, markets, institutions and policies. Four major implications emerge from the review. First, green growth requires competences that allow for handling complex, non-routine situations – in both the private and the public sector. Second, technological progress should be directed towards greener technologies, to avoid investments funds being channelled to brown technologies for short-term returns. Third, our knowledge of the opportunities for achieving green growth must base upon a joint assessment of market failures, structural system failures and transformational system failures. Finally, greater attention should be devoted to the geography of green growth processes at different scales.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: October 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 50〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Abdelkader Dairi, Tuoyuan Cheng, Fouzi Harrou, Ying Sun, TorOve Leiknes〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are sustainable solutions to water scarcity. As initial conditions offered to WWTPs, influent conditions (ICs) affect treatment units states, ongoing processes mechanisms, and product qualities. Anomalies in ICs, often raised by abnormal events, need to be monitored and detected promptly to improve system resilience and provide smart environments. This paper proposed and verified data-driven anomaly detection approaches based on deep learning methods and clustering algorithms. Combining both the ability to capture temporal auto-correlation features among multivariate time series from recurrent neural networks (RNNs), and the function to delineate complex distributions from restricted Boltzmann machines (RBM), RNN-RBM models were employed and connected with various classifiers for anomaly detection. The effectiveness of RNN based, RBM based, RNN-RBM based, or standalone individual detectors, including expectation maximization clustering, K-means clustering, mean-shift clustering, one-class support vector machine (OCSVM), spectral clustering, and agglomerative clustering algorithms were evaluated by importing seven years ICs data from a coastal municipal WWTP where more than 150 abnormal events occurred. Results demonstrated that RNN-RBM-based OCSVM approach outperformed all other scenarios with an area under the curve value up to 0.98, which validated the superiority in feature extraction by RNN-RBM, and the robustness in multivariate nonlinear kernels by OCSVM. The model was flexible for not requiring assumptions on data distribution, and could be shared and transferred among environmental data scientists.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Neng Zhu, Daokun Chong〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Hyperthermal environments in public or industrial buildings impose substantial heat stress on the human body. To ensure human health in built environments, research has focused on the interactions between the heat tolerance and environments. This paper summarizes the progress in the literature concerning the evaluation and improvement of heat tolerance in three areas: environmental and physiological parameters, heat tolerance evaluation indexes, and heat acclimation (HA). This review leads to four conclusions: (1) Future indexes should give top priority to subjective perceptions to diminish individual differences; (2) machine learning techniques based on big data should be adopted to deal with complex correlations between hot environments and heat tolerance; (3) an optimal HA training regimen should be determined for workers to improve their heat tolerance and HA should be considered in the design and control strategies of indoor thermal environments for energy conservation; and (4) more field investigations should be conducted to modify laboratory-based findings. This review provides a comprehensive understanding of built environments and health and guidelines for future research.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Sophie A. Nitoslawski, Nadine J. Galle, Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosc, James W.N. Steenberg〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈p〉Smart cities are increasingly part of urban sustainability discourses. There is a growing interest in understanding how citizen engagement, connected technology, and data analytics can support sustainable development. Evidence has also repeatedly shown that green infrastructure such as urban forests address diverse urban challenges and are critical components of urban sustainability and resilience. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether green space and urban forest management are gaining significant traction in smart city planning. It is thus timely to consider whether and to what extent urban forests and other green spaces can be effectively integrated into smart city planning, to maximize green benefits for all city dwellers.〈/p〉 〈p〉We address this gap by exploring current and emerging smart city trends and technologies, and highlight practical applications for urban forest and green space management. Current “smart urban forest” projects reveal a focus on novel monitoring techniques using sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, as well as open data and citizen engagement, particularly through the use of mobile devices, applications (“apps”), and open-source mapping platforms. We propose a definition and promising approach to “smart urban forest management”, emphasizing both the potential of digital infrastructure to enhance forest benefits and the facilitation of citizen stewardship and empowerment in green space planning. Cities are getting faster and smarter – can (and should) the trees, and their managers, do the same?〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Jun Bao, Yu Wang, Xinjie Xu, Xiaoyi Niu, Jinxiang Liu, Lanlan Qiu〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The development of big data leads to the increasing heat dissipation of data center chips. As an efficient pattern to remove high heat flux, spray cooling has huge potential for data center cooling. Spray cooling system was established combined with PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) system. The PIV was used to measure the flow pattern distribution of different nozzle sprays, while the surface heat flux and heat transfer coefficient were obtained by the thermocouples. The results show that as the spray diameter decreases, the outlet pressure and outlet velocity of the droplet increase, and the spray cone angle increases, causing only a small amount of droplets actually participate in the heat exchange, resulting in a higher velocity and a smaller heat transfer coefficient. It is also inferred that better uniformity of droplets velocity is beneficial for the heat transfer performance. Moreover, to further enhance the heat transfer performance, nano-alumina solution with five different fractions was applied to the experimental system. It is found that the heat transfer coefficient of the surface reaches an optimum value with a maximum velocity obtained by the PIV when the mass fraction of the solution is 0.08%.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Peleg Kremer, Annegret Haase, Dagmar Haase〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉In this paper, we introduce the special issue “The future of urban sustainability: Smart, efficient, green or just?” the special issue aims to explore the relationships, conflicts and connections between different approaches to urban sustainability and begin to build a shared understanding of the roles, synergies and tradeoffs between them. Papers in this special issue emphasize the multidimensionality of urban sustainability and its integration of social, ecological, economic, and technological systems.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Sabah Abdul-Wahab, Ziyad Alsubhi〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Despite the small quantities of hydrogen fluoride (HF) that are emitted from aluminum smelters compared with the other gaseous emissions, HF is one of the most dangerous gases to be considered when studying the environmental impact of these smelters. Therefore, modeling HF dispersion is essentially important to make sure that concentrations do not exceed threshold limit, especially for buildings, which are located close to the emission source. The objective of the current study was to examine the dispersion of atmospheric HF emitted from an aluminum smelter located in Oman. The results of the study indicated that the concentrations were found to be well below the allowable concentrations. Results in winter showed that the highest hourly HF concentration (0.104 〈math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" altimg="si3.svg"〉〈msup〉〈mrow〉〈mtext〉 〈/mtext〉〈mtext〉μ〈/mtext〉〈mtext〉g〈/mtext〉〈mo〉/〈/mo〉〈mtext〉m〈/mtext〉〈/mrow〉〈mn〉3〈/mn〉〈/msup〉〈mo stretchy="false"〉)〈/mo〉〈/math〉 was occurred at 18:00 h local standard time and was found to be at a location −9.5 km west and 2.5 km north of the plant. Conversely, the simulation in summer indicated that the highest hourly HF concentration (0.374 〈math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" altimg="si4.svg"〉〈msup〉〈mrow〉〈mtext〉μ〈/mtext〉〈mtext〉g〈/mtext〉〈mo〉/〈/mo〉〈mtext〉m〈/mtext〉〈/mrow〉〈mn〉3〈/mn〉〈/msup〉〈mo stretchy="false"〉)〈/mo〉〈/math〉 was obtained at 22:00 h and was found to be at a location -8.5 km west and 3.5 km north of the plant. The results of the study will have significant importance to the residents, stakeholders, and related permitting authorities in the area.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: December 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 124〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Kwabena Krah, Hope Michelson, Emilie Perge, Rohit Jindal〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Though problems related to low and declining soil fertility continue to impede agricultural production and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder farmers in this region – those cultivating two hectares or less – have shown reluctance to adopt practices at scale that help conserve or enhance soil quality. Employing a discrete choice-based experiment, we find evidence that farmers’ propensity to adopt soil fertility management (SFM) practices increases with improved access to mineral fertilizers, and when farmers receive relevant technical training on soil fertility improving technologies. A unique aspect of our study is our focus on understanding how smallholders’ stated SFM preferences relate to their perceptions of recent local climatic variation. We find that farmers who perceive that rainfall amounts are decreasing are less willing to adopt crop rotations to improve soils. Our findings suggest that policies designed to increase adoption of SFM practices are more likely to succeed when they provide farmers with inputs that farmers perceive as complementary to SFM, including mineral fertilizer, and when they are built around an understanding of farmers’ perceptions of climatic variability.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: December 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 124〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Olivier J. Walther, Michel Tenikue, Marie Trémolières〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The objective of this article is to measure the effects of income and gender on informal social networks in the rice value chain. Using primary data collected on 490 entrepreneurs in Benin, Niger and Nigeria, the paper first demonstrates that the monthly profit of entrepreneurs is determined by their structural position within the rice value chain. The most prosperous actors are simultaneously deeply embedded in their community through numerous ties and capable of building connections with other communities outside their own ethnic groups and countries. The paper then analyses to what extent gender is a strong predictor of social ties. An econometric analysis shows that women are less central than men and that their income is much lower after controlling for age, experience, education, religion and matrimonial status.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: December 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 124〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Khan Islam, Melanie O’Gorman〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉There is now a vast literature investigating the impact of microcredit on poverty in the developing world. Such studies are by and large at the micro-level – investigating the impact of the provision of microcredit loans or a feature of microcredit contracts for a specific microfinance institution (MFI) on measures of well-being such as poverty or female empowerment. While these studies are crucial for understanding the effectiveness of microcredit in various contexts, very little analysis has been at the macroeconomic level with a view to understanding the general equilibrium effects of microfinance. This paper does this, by providing a comprehensive theory that allows the relative importance of the various factors influencing microcredit’s impact to be quantified. We build on Buera et al. (2012) and develop a model of financial intermediation which highlights the roles of credit market imperfections, MFI efficiency and occupational choice. We exploit the large cross-country variation in microcredit features to decipher the important features of microcredit contracts, calibrating the model to data for 21 countries in the early 2000s. We then use the calibrated model to investigate the impact of a number of counterfactual scenarios which may lend insight into microcredit policy, such as training for microcredit clients, credit information-sharing and microcredit itself. We investigate the impact of each policy experiment on poverty, income per capita and entrepreneurship. This paper highlights that the impact of credit policies differs significantly across countries, and therefore that no credit-based policy is a panacea for improving welfare.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 123〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): 〈/p〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: December 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 124〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Pamina Koenig, Sandra Poncet〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉This paper studies the effect of social responsibility scandals on the imports of consumer products, by focusing on an event which generated massive consumer mobilization against neglecting firms, namely the collapse of the Rana Plaza building affecting the textile industry in Bangladesh. We investigate the import repercussions of this major shock in the perceived quality of clothing producers sourcing in Bangladesh. In line with the well-documented home bias in trade and home-country media slant, we assume that consumers’ reaction will be stronger when domestic firms are named and shamed. Our empirical strategy uses a difference-in-difference approach that compares imports from Bangladesh of countries according to whether some of their companies were directly associated with the collapse of the Rana Plaza. Our results are consistent with demand being sensitive to social responsibility scandals. While aggregate imports from Bangladesh continue to increase during the whole period (2010–2016), there is a marked disruption that affects countries whose brands were named and shamed by activists and the media after the disaster. In addition, the decline in imports is all the greater as the number of NGO campaigns on the misbehavior of national textile retailers is high.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Ayman Faza, Amjed Al-Mousa〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Advances in the technologies of smart grids has made it possible to monitor and control the demand side of the power grid in ways that were not possible in the past. Thanks to the advances in information and communication technologies (ICT), Demand Side Management (DSM) is now possible, and promises more efficient and reliable power grids. This paper presents a study of different dynamic pricing techniques that are used as means to shape the demand in ways that minimize generation cost or maximize profit. This is achieved by using a fuzzy logic model that takes into account the different types of customers in the system. The paper further uses Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to generate the parameters that can achieve optimal grid operation. Results show that when customers are actively engaged in DSM schemes, and with the proper Dynamic Pricing scheme, optimal results can be obtained that benefit both the customers and the utility company, not to mention the savings in energy production and its impact on the sustainability of our cities. The results show that savings up to 12% in generation cost and a three times increase in profit can be achieved using an optimized DSM scheme.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: December 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 124〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Valentina Zuin, Caroline Delaire, Rachel Peletz, Alicea Cock-Esteb, Ranjiv Khush, Jeff Albert〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Worldwide, 892 million people practice open defecation, most of whom live in rural areas of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is the most widely deployed approach to generate demand for, and use of sanitation facilities. CLTS relies on behavioral change and community self-enforcement to end open defecation. Since its genesis in Bangladesh in 1999, CLTS has spread to approximately 60 countries, mostly in Asia and Africa, and is employed by the majority of development organizations operating in rural sanitation. This paper uses a qualitative approach to analyze the reasons and processes that drove the wide diffusion of CLTS. We show that CLTS was embraced because it was perceived as a fast and effective solution to the problem of open defecation, one which was in line with the decentralization and community participation paradigms, at a time when donors and governments were looking for strategies to meet the MDG for sanitation. CLTS spread under the leadership of influential donors, NGOs, persuasive practitioners, and academics. Face-to-face interactions among members of this network and local governments at conferences and workshops played a central role in the diffusion of the approach. The use of experiential learning during study tours and workshop field visits has been crucial to persuade government actors at different levels, NGOs, and donors to use the CLTS approach. Notably, robust scientific evidence played little role in the diffusion of CLTS. We conclude by making suggestions to strengthen the evidence base for rural sanitation policies.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: December 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 124〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Youngwan Kim, Hyuk-Sang Sohn, Bokyeong Park〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉A majority of people in developing countries suffer from chronic hunger due to food crises and poverty. This has attracted humanitarian organizations specializing in addressing hunger, food security and poverty to set up efforts aimed at reducing hunger and poverty among vulnerable communities. This study aims to evaluate the achievements of the Saemaul Zero Hunger Communities Project (SZHCP) of the World Food Program (WFP) implemented by Good Neighbors International (GNI) in partnership with Tanzanian and Bangladesh local governments, which ran from 2014 to 2018 in selected local communities in Tanzania and Bangladesh. The project targeted the most vulnerable communities to improve their livelihood and rural development programs in terms of food security, income generation, education, and infrastructure improvement through community-based activities. To collect information and data for evaluation, we conducted field research such as in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and household surveys in the target villages of the SZHCP in Tanzania and Bangladesh. Using qualitative analysis, difference-in-difference estimation, and linear regression on surveys of 1142 respondents, we show that the SZHCP significantly improved the livelihoods of beneficiaries in relation to zero hunger, and also increased income generation and promoted positive social changes. It has also helped to strengthen the capacity of communities to run development projects themselves. This study provides evidence-based analysis that could allow stakeholders and researchers to more fully engage with future community-based projects.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Suman Majumder, Krishnarti De, Praveen Kumar, Ramesh Rayudu〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Economic growth in the emerging countries has led to rapid urbanization and expansion of existing cities. As a result, major cities in the emerging nations experience traffic congestion and deteriorating air quality. One of the solutions to overcome these problems is to develop a comprehensive public transportation system based on clean fuel. This work proposes a public transportation system based on electric buses that can be used in the cities. Here, the proposed system is studied and analyzed for Indian scenario. High capacity batteries and distributed solar PV generation has been used to ensure that no additional burden is put on the existing distribution network. These batteries are placed at each bus stop to store energy from the grid during the off-peak hours, and the supercapacitor in the buses will be flash charged from these batteries. In this work, the architecture of the proposed system has been presented along with initial sizing of the subsystems, for understanding the operation of the system for various scenarios, and to investigate its interaction with the grid. The results show that such a system, if carefully designed, is feasible and is capable of meeting the transportation needs without adding additional burden to the grid.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Saghar Mokhtarmanesh, Mohammad Ghomeishi〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Our environment is an essential factor in designing a user-preference-based place. This study investigates the effects of the environment on users in determining their preferences for schools. The school environment/surroundings affect students in terms of their behaviour and achievements. It can be an advantage if students’ take a liking to their school building, as this emotion can motivate them to attend the school eagerly. Consequently, since a child’s view of a space is different from an adult’s view, a school space should be built according to the requirements and factors that are specific to the children and important for them in this environment. In this study, female elementary schools located in District 1 of Tehran, Iran have been investigated qualitatively using card sorting techniques followed by semi-structured interviews in order to determine their preferences regarding their school buildings’ attributes. The results were analyzed using content analysis. It was revealed that students preferred having 〈em〉playgrounds〈/em〉, 〈em〉colourful buildings〈/em〉, 〈em〉big interior spaces〈/em〉, 〈em〉wide windows〈/em〉, 〈em〉curvy shaped facades〈/em〉, 〈em〉articulated facades〈/em〉, and 〈em〉stairs〈/em〉 in school buildings; they did not express a preference for 〈em〉tall buildings〈/em〉 and 〈em〉being near streets〈/em〉. The results reveal that having these spaces could influence the student’s evaluation of the school.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 148〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Juan A. Martínez-Román, Javier Gamero, María de Loreto Delgado-González, Juan A. Tamayo〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Innovation is essential to the knowledge economy and requires organizations to open to external markets. This paper delves into the influence of product innovation on internationalization in SMEs and elaborates an explanatory model of their innovative behavior. Analysis of the data of 123,395 surveys of firms in 13 European countries demonstrates that product innovation drives the firm's commercial expansion and favors its exportation activity, though with a non-linear relationship and decreasing performances as innovation level increases. It is also demonstrated that, in general terms, risk in geographic market extension does not vary in a relevant way when firms are more innovative. Significant differences were detected between countries in regard to the impact of innovation and its marginal utility, and in the evolution of risk in said market extension with increasing innovation. The comparative analysis reveals differences between more and less technological industries, and, on an aggregate level, between more developed economies in the Western and Eastern European transition economies, with less marked disparities from north to south. Analysis of the model reveals the prominence of internal variables in innovative behavior, as well as a certain disconnect between firms and the institutional context in the set of countries.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Gholamreza Heravi, Mohammad Mehdi Abdolvand〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The growing global water crisis highlights the importance of the assessment of the amount of virtual water consumption -water consumed during production of material and construction- in residential building projects. The purpose of this research is: (1) to assess the virtual water consumption of residential building projects in Iran; (2) to compare the amount of virtual water consumption in Iran with other countries; and (3) to assess sustainability impacts of the virtual water consumption on the national level. To do so, life cycle analysis method using process analysis for gathering data is implemented. Moreover, the results are generalized to evaluate virtual water consumption on a national level. In this way, the virtual water consumption of six residential buildings in Tehran, the capital of Iran, is assessed. The findings of this study showed that the virtual water consumption of residential buildings is 20.8 〈math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" altimg="si1.svg"〉〈msup〉〈mi〉m〈/mi〉〈mn〉3〈/mn〉〈/msup〉〈/math〉 per 〈math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" altimg="si2.svg"〉〈msup〉〈mi〉m〈/mi〉〈mn〉2〈/mn〉〈/msup〉〈/math〉. Assessing the sustainability impacts of the virtual water consumption on the national level in 2017 resulted in: (1) the energy of supplying water consumed in the residential building construction releases about 13,700,000 Ton of greenhouse gases; and (2) the per capita virtual water consumption is about 20% of the country’s drinking water consumption per capita.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 20 August 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Daniel C. Miller, Reem Hajjar〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The role of forests in supporting current consumption and helping people cope with seasonal, climatic, and other stressors is increasingly well understood. But can forests help rural households climb out of poverty? And can forests provide a pathway to prosperity that includes more widely shared economic benefits and improvements in other aspects of human well-being? This introduction to the Special Issue on “Forests as Pathways to Prosperity” reviews the literature on forest livelihoods in developing countries to synthesize evidence relating to these questions. We find that available research primarily examines poverty mitigation aspects of forests rather than the potential role of forest conservation, management, and use in alleviating poverty or promoting broader prosperity. To increase understanding of forest-livelihood relationships we propose a framework based on the concept of prosperity, which draws particular attention to human well-being beyond economic and material dimensions. We argue that explicitly taking a more expansive view can enable better accounting for the diverse ways forests contribute to human welfare, expand the constituency for forests, and inform policies to more sustainably manage forests within wider landscapes. Together, our review and the other articles in this volume advance these objectives by providing new analytical frameworks, empirical insights, and theoretical understanding to build knowledge on linkages between forests, poverty, and broader prosperity.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: December 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 124〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Grant Alan Burrier, Philip Hultquist〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Hydroelectric power is the world’s largest source of renewable energy. It can encourage economic development while reducing carbon emissions, but large hydroelectric projects have serious social and environmental consequences. Democratic Developmental and Ecological Modernization theorists counseled the adoption of new regulations and institutions to increase citizen participation and socioenvironmental protection. Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and public audiences are considered best practice, but do these new protections and procedures alter government behavior when it makes critical development decisions? We argue scholars have paid too little attention to how bureaucratic hierarchies and weak cross-agency harmonization weaken environmental regimes. To highlight these issues, we provide an in-depth case study of hydroelectric dam construction in India, a country simultaneously confronting widespread underdevelopment and an energy matrix overwhelmingly reliant on carbon-based sources. Our multi-method analysis includes: innovative ArcGIS techniques to create an original database of large hydroelectric projects, field research, and a longitudinal analysis of three distinct periods of dam construction. We find the Indian government gradually shifted from large, multipurpose impoundment dams to smaller run-of-the-river (ROR) projects. ROR dams maintain a smaller footprint by requiring less flooding, but they are less efficient and versatile. Facing greater constitutional protections, concerns about resettlement costs, and past social mobilization, the Indian government is prioritizing smaller projects in remote locations to mitigate the social consequences of dam projects. Nevertheless, environmental concerns have been perfunctory. No fish ladders, exposed riverbeds, compromised waterflow regimes, and minimal riparian rehabilitation mean the environmental consequences of ROR dams remain extremely severe. These findings can be attributed to bureaucratic hierarchies, which limit the power of environmental agencies. Additionally, EIAs have been largely cursory and public audiences have not tangibly improved environmental outcomes because civil society generally prioritizes the social impacts of projects. In conclusion, our study finds India is better reconciling economic development with greater social protection and inclusion. The continued negative environmental externalities of contemporary hydroelectric projects highlight significant space for improving environmental protection.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Marjan Ilbeigi, Azadeh Mahmudi KohneRoudPosht, Mohammad Ghomeishi, Emad Behrouzifard〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The aim of this study is to define aesthetic differences between architects’ and non-architects’ perspectives by considering the cognitive properties of residential buildings’ facades located in Iran. Accordingly, in order to observe perceptional similarities and differences between designers and users, the aesthetics of residential facades is investigated in Tehran, Iran, through a comprehensive case study. A quantitative method was used in the form of a questionnaire, and the corresponding data is further analyzed by SPSS software. Although architects’ and non-architects’ perspectives are somewhat similar in selecting and evaluating the chosen facade, corresponding findings reveal significant differences as well. The results further show that the classic architectural style was not appealing for the architects. Moreover, non-architects and architects think that ‘uniqueness’ is the most effective parameter; while architects believe that ‘pleasantness’ has the highest influence among the presumed six parameters in selecting the best facade. Furthermore, the outcomes indicate that the studied groups have some conflicting viewpoints about aesthetics, while there would be some similarities about the unfavorable facades. In this regard, the non-architects’ standpoints, preferences, and satisfaction should be assumed during the design procedure. This research can open a new perspective on the architect’s perception in the early design stage.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Ning Xu, Qiong Zhang, Haoran Zhang, Minsung Hong, Rajendra Akerkar, Yongtu Liang〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Disasters pose a serious threat to people’ lives and urban environment, affecting the sustainable development of society. Then it's crucial to quickly develop an efficient rescue plan for the disaster area. However, disaster rescue is rather difficult due to the requirement to develop the optimal rescue plan as quickly as possible according to the information of trapped people and rescue teams, and the amount of information will continue to increase as the rescue proceeds. At present, most of the rescue plans are manually made based on previous rescue experience. But obviously these plans might be the not optimal one. Considering the real-time location data of trapped people, this paper develops a Mixed Integer Non-linear Programming (MINLP) model to find the highest efficient rescue plan To solve the model accurately and efficiently, a bi-level decomposition (BLD) algorithm is presented to iteratively solve a discretized Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model and its nonconvex Non-linear Programming (NLP) model until a converged solution is obtained. In addition, since more trapped people could be found over time, the built rescue units should also be considered when making a rescue plan for a new stage. To further improve the solving efficiency, an accelerated bi-level decomposition (ABLD) algorithm is also proposed. Finally, a real-world disaster rescue is given to validate the superiority of the proposed ABLD algorithm relative to particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and BLD algorithm.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Ghaffar Ali, Sawaid Abbas, Yanchun Pan, Zhimin Chen, Jafar Hussain, Muhammad Sajjad, Aqdas Ashraf〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The aim of achieving stable economic growth and development deter the pathways of being a low carbon society in developing countries. Nonetheless, it is imperative to understand and analyze the long-term goals of such societies to upgrade and redirect priorities towards the low-carbon structure. Therefore, this study is carried by applying a novel multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach and the Bilan Carbone model to examine the different possibilities for cost/benefit analysis from direct reductions in carbon emission levels in the Lahore Metropolitan Area (LMA) of Pakistan. The LMA is a metropolitan city in the developing country and is marked with a huge spike in energy demands and carbon emissions due to increasing population. Three scenarios including one current (2010), and two future (business as usual—2050BaU and low carbon scenario—2050LCS), were developed. Our findings show no evidence of renewable energy use—such as solar, wind, and biomass—in the current energy mix of LMA. Furthermore, an increase in carbon dioxide (CO〈sub〉2〈/sub〉) emissions from 3.5 in 2010 to 14 million tonnes (mt) in 2050 is found. Mitigation potential analysis of different sectors showed that the industrial sector of the city has the biggest mitigation capacity (13%) until the year 2050, whereas, the smallest proportion may come from the commercial sector (4%). The carbon emissions in LMA would be reduced as much as 50% as compared to the BaU scenario until 2050. Moreover, this mitigation potential study would also serve as a ripple effect in the data deficient cities of low-income countries.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: December 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 124〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Thang T. Vo, Pham Hoang Van〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉This study provides new evidence on the impact of health insurance coverage on household vulnerability using the Vietnam Access to Resources Household Surveys (VARHS) for 2010 and 2012. We apply propensity score matching to address the non-random selection of households into health insurance status. The VARHS data allow us to include risk preference as a predictor of health insurance propensity, an important source of endogeneity between health insurance coverage and vulnerability. We estimate that health insurance helps rural households in Vietnam reduce the idiosyncratic component of utility loss by 81 per cent and the probability of becoming poor by 19 per cent. Our results are robust to alternative statistical specifications. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper measuring the impact of health insurance coverage on household 〈em〉ex-ante〈/em〉 vulnerability. Our findings suggest that expanding access, reducing costs and improving efficiency in health care would have big benefits of reducing vulnerability for the poor.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 52〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Andrea Patricia Cuesta-Mosquera, Matthew Wahl, Jansen Gabriel Acosta-López, José Agustín García-Reynoso, Beatriz Helena Aristizábal-Zuluaga〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Distinct times of sulfur dioxide concentration (SO〈sub〉2〈/sub〉) were observed in the main square of a tropical Andean city, revealing strong meteorological control of SO〈sub〉2〈/sub〉. Concentrations were measured by UV fluorescence at 5-minute intervals, and compared to local meteorological forcing. A consistent morning peak of SO〈sub〉2〈/sub〉 (4.32 μg∙m⁻³ at 7:40 AM) was concurrent with peak traffic, and occurred 10 minutes into an 80-minute period of calm (wind velocities ˂ 0.3 m s⁻1). Instead of accumulating, SO〈sub〉2〈/sub〉 decreased 54%, due an expanding mixing layer. Peak evening SO〈sub〉2〈/sub〉 (5.2 μg∙m⁻³ at 8:15 PM) was observed 2:15 hours after flow reversal, and consistent with travel-times of an air parcel descending from industrial facilities. The consistent anthropogenic emissions formed a pattern of daily SO〈sub〉2〈/sub〉 concentration that aided in identifying more random volcanic SO〈sub〉2〈/sub〉. Manizales (pop. 400000) is located on the western slope of the Cordillera Central in proximity to the Nevado del Ruiz volcano. The complex trajectory necessary for volcanic SO〈sub〉2〈/sub〉 to arrive in the main square was simulated for the highest observed concentration (114 μg•m⁻³), using Hysplit and Aura-OMI information. This type of analysis can be applied to urban planning - from locating industrial zones to managing transportation - particularly in tropical montane cities.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Paola Lassandro, Silvia Di Turi〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Global warming increases the probability of extreme events and heat waves, intensified by Urban Heat Island phenomenon, triggering severe impacts on both human health and economy. The paper aims at developing a new methodological approach for the assessment of building ability to face rising temperatures, also considering the effects on the surrounding urban areas. It focuses on resilient retrofitting strategies need for building envelope according to three macro-categories: reliability, adaptability and mitigation ability. A set of indicators is defined to achieve a Response Index to cope with heat waves. The method is tested on reference building and its neighborhood. The selected strategies are investigated through an integrated and multilevel analysis with EnergyPlus and ENVI_met, in three different cities with increasing summer temperature. The final comparative analysis is carried out through a multi-criteria analysis according to the identified indicators. The best responsive solutions result the green ones combined with high albedo, but the research highlights also some controversial aspects. The method can be a valid tool to support the decisional process about heat waves mitigation in the roadmap towards a more responsive built environment.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: December 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 124〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Kelvin Mashisia Shikuku, Julius Juma Okello, Stella Wambugu, Kirimi Sindi, Jan W. Low, Margaret McEwan〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉This study examined the nutrition and food security impacts of a project that was designed to improve availability of disease-free planting materials of biofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) in rural Tanzania. Difference-in-difference and matching techniques were employed to estimate causal effects using panel data. Participation in the project increased agronomic and nutritional knowledge of households, raised uptake rate for OFSP varieties, and improved food security status. Effects on nutrition are, however, weak. These results suggest that timely access to quality seeds accompanied by a transfer of skills is important to reduce barriers to adoption of biofortified crops with resulting positive effects on the welfare of rural households. Adequate promotion of both agronomic and nutrition aspects of the technologies may enhance nutrition effects.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: December 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 124〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Guenwoo Lee, Aya Suzuki, Vu Hoang Nam〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉In developing countries, social networks play a critical role in the transmission of information about new technologies and influence an individual’s decision to adopt the technology. Thus, this study considered a case of shrimp farmers in Vietnam to identify whether the farmers’ networks have positive effects on diffusing accurate agricultural information to the treated farmers and their neighbors. To explore the effects, we invited farmers selected using network-based targeting to a workshop held in December 2017 and estimated it using data obtained before and after the treatment. We found that: 1) the targeting has a positive effect on the treated farmers’ knowledge level about a good aquaculture practice; 2) The treated farmers selected using the network-based targeting share information with more neighbors when they get new information; and 3) The targeting has a positive spillover effect on untreated farmers' knowledge level, but its effect is lower than other randomly selected. These findings can conclude that network-based targeting appears to be a method to disseminate information to many people. Nevertheless, the methods are less likely to deliver accurate information to a wider group of farmers than random sampling.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Reza Ramyar, Esmaeil Zarghami, Margaret Bryant〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉There is a growing concern in recent years about temperature rise resulting from climate change, especially in high-density urban areas, where it is exacerbated in urban heat islands (UHI). In hot and dry climates, this concern makes it necessary to find a practical solution to adapt to climate change. Rapidly developed cities with large populations, due to ignoring the creation of UHI in planning, mostly have fallen into severe trouble. So, finding the influence of decisions’ impacts on urban climate before implementing them would inform planners about the consequences of their decisions. Advanced 3D-4D numerical models like ENVI-met are becoming a frequent way of investigating climatic impacts of decisions and regulations. However, full-scale modeling of a neighborhood or a city cannot be widely possible at present. Therefore, a practical solution is simplification of small-scale models to calculate the consequences of decisions in developments. In this study, we systematically propose some solutions for cooling urban neighborhoods, and then, after analyzing them, possible scenarios for UHI mitigation are presented. The goal is to find the most effective urban form and design strategies across a typical range of Tehran urban development at a high-density urban fabric. Our results provide insight into the impact of urban form and design on microclimate in hotter and drier future cities by considering water shortage and utilizing mitigation strategies.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Pouya salyani, Mehdi Abapour, Kazem Zare〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉With respect to the penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) due to pursuing environmental targets, EV parking lots establishment for giving charge and discharge services is necessary. Nevertheless, distribution companies (DisCos) seek to reduce the planning cost as much as possible and in this regard, demand response can be one of their effective options. However the customers participated in this program reduce or shift their consumption for the sake of increasing their benefit and accordingly DisCo must provide an incentive like the decrease in energy price which causes a competition between the DisCo and customers decisions. Because selling energy with higher price is preferable for DisCo. Hence what is proposed in this paper is the optimal probabilistic and long term planning of DGs and EV parking lots in the presence of demand response in which the mentioned competition is controlled via implementing Stackelberg game theory. In this game, DisCo plays as the leader and the customers interested in demand response play as the followers and their interaction is conducted though a decentralized distributed algorithm which finally determines the consumption profiles and the related energy selling price for all scenarios through the panning period.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Lei Wang, Guoyuan Ma, Feng Zhou, Yu Liu, Tian Tian〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Ventilation heat recovery devices have been increasingly used in energy-efficient buildings. Many factors, such as the attributes of buildings and the economic conditions of decision makers, should be considered in the installation of ventilation heat recovery devices. Thus, decision makers experience a multicriteria decision-making problem. This study presented a method of combining Analytical Hierarchy Process with the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution to provide guidance in selecting ventilation heat recovery devices on the basis of the attributes of buildings and preferences of decision makers. By using residential house, small shop, and small public service center as examples, four types of ventilation heat recovery devices (total, plate sensible, integral heat pipe (R32), integral heat pipe (R717) heat exchangers) were recommended and sequenced under different background requirements through the proposed method. Results showed that the total heat exchanger obtained the highest recommended indicator value in small load application scenario, indicating its suitability. The proposed method can completely consider the attributes of buildings and psychological preferences of decision makers and combine the characteristics of different types of ventilation heat recovery devices. This approach provides scientific and reasonable recommended results in selecting heat recovery devices.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Jean Engo〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The transport sector represents one of Cameroon's economic sectors with high energy consumption and CO〈sub〉2〈/sub〉 emissions. To this end, it is clear that practical ways to save energy and reduce CO〈sub〉2〈/sub〉 emissions from this sector are needed to enable Cameroon to achieve its greenhouse gas mitigation targets. The Tapio and LMDI methods were applied in this paper, based on an extended Kaya identity, to explore the decoupling relationship among energy-related CO〈sub〉2〈/sub〉 emissions and growth from Cameroon’s transport sector, over the period 1990–2016. The decoupling indicators were broken down into five factors while considering the four fuels consumed in Cameroon's transport sector. Empirical results showed that only four states of decoupling appeared during the study’s period including weak decoupling, strong decoupling, weak negative decoupling, and strong negative decoupling. Meanwhile, scale effects, energy structure effect, and energy intensity effect prevented decoupling, whereas the economic structure effect played an important role in promoting decoupling. Based on the findings of this study, some policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions from Cameroon's transport sector were proposed in this paper.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: December 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 124〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Felipe Livert, Xabier Gainza, Jose Acuña〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉This paper analyses the incidence of political factors and social capital on the allocation of public investment in the Santiago Metropolitan Area, Chile. Considering panel data on a decentralized investment program distributed through local governments and a program that is geared directly to citizen organizations, the paper explores whether investment is equally subject to electoral concerns and rent seeking under different program designs. Our estimations show that decentralized investment favours aligned municipalities where competition is stronger, but long-lasting local leaders also seek their own benefits. By contrast, transfers directly channelled to beneficiaries are free from political clout and, additionally, there is no sign of capture by organized interests. Based on these results, the paper discusses the implications for metropolitan governance, highlighting the potential role of the local social capital and a two-tier governance scheme to retain the gains from decentralization, acquire economies of scale in metropolitan service provision and reduce the margin for pork barrelling.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 123〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Tobias Pfutze〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉A large literature on Conditional Cash Transfers programs assesses the effects of becoming a beneficiary. However, the consequences of losing the benefit due to program graduation are largely unstudied. This paper replicates the eligibility score employed over 2010–15 by Mexico’s Oportunidades for a large household survey. Using a Regression Discontinuity Design around the threshold for program graduation, it shows that losing this additional incentive had a negative effect on high school attendance for lower secondary school aged students in urban, and upper secondary school aged ones in rural areas. The results suggest that the graduation thresholds are chosen too low.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 123〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Gani Aldashev, Elena Vallino〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Participatory conservation projects imply direct involvement of local communities in natural conservation efforts, aiming at combining economic development with protecting the environment. NGOs engaged in both development and conservation massively implement such projects. Numerous field studies document mixed results of such interventions and the persistence of conservation-development tradeoff: better conservation comes at the expense of lowering the livelihoods of community members because they have to abstain from using the conservation area for hunting or agriculture. Economists argue that transferring property rights to relevant stakeholders would provide the right incentives for escaping this tradeoff. We build a simple model explaining why this policy might be insufficient. If the revenue from the conservation project is low and/or volatile, the community members may rationally reject conservation unless the NGO allocates a part of resources to sustaining community livelihoods (e.g. by agricultural extension). Hence, the NGO should deviate from its narrow mission to reach its broader objective. If the NGO is funded by strictly environmentally-oriented donors it may struggle to justify diverting a part of resources to agricultural extension, as such donors obtain little “warm-glow” utility from giving to the NGO that substantially engages in non-core mission activities. Thus, the NGO faces a “size versus efficiency” dilemma: poorly conserving a larger area (with non-cooperating local communities but happier donors) or conserving well a smaller area (with cooperation by local communities but keeping donors unsatisfied).〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Yiyang Yang, Dongsheng He, Zhonghua Gou, Ruoyu Wang, Ye Liu, Yi Lu〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Built environment interventions, such as creating green and walkable neighborhoods have increasingly been recognized as an effective approach to promote physical activity and health for older adults. However, evidence of the associations of urban greenery and older adults’ physical activity is still inconclusive, partially due to the difficulty to estimate eye-level urban greenery exposure. To address this gap, we assessed street greenery by Google Street View (GSV) images with machine learning techniques and associated it with walking behavior for 10,700 and 1083 Hong Kong older adults (aged 65 or above) respectively. Neighborhood socioeconomic status, individual factors, and other built environment characteristics were controlled for in the analysis. We found that street greenery assessed by GSV was positively associated with both the odds of engaging in walking and total walking time of the older adults. Our findings suggest that urban planners and policymakers should maximize residents’ greenery exposure by considering the accessibility and visibility of urban greenery from pedestrian and human-scale perspectives.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Mohammad Abujubbeh, Fadi Al-Turjman, Murat Fahrioglu〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Power systems across the globe witness structural challenges because of the increased concerns on climate change and vast growth in energy demand. Purposefully, new technologies and solutions have emerged such as renewable-energy systems, electric vehicles, and micro-grids. With the development of Internet of Things (IoT) and Wireless Sensor Networking (WSN) technologies, Smart Grid (SG) concept is becoming more attractive, whereby it refers to upgrading conventional power-grid infrastructure in order to offer automated control over the resources and emerging technologies in smart and sustainable cities. The implementation of this automated control requires robust and secure bidirectional communication systems. However, legacy-networking paradigms failed to address flexibility in their design to meet SG-networking requirements. Alternatively, Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm provides two powerful networking solutions namely, decoupling control from the data layer and network programmability, which can enhance the robustness of communication networks in modern societies. Therefore, the main aim of this article is to present an overview of integrating Software-Defined WSN (SDWSN) concept in SGs in order to solve the aforementioned challenges and improve network robustness. We categorize literature attempts, describe enabling devices and communication technologies, and we suggest open research issues and opportunities associated with integrating SDWSN paradigm into SGs.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: November 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 51〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Yong-Kang Qiao, Fang-Le Peng, Soheil Sabri, Abbas Rajabifard〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Underground space has been widely used in densely populated cities across the globe, and is attracting increasing attention among academics and practitioners toward further alleviating land use pressure, improving urban resilience and the quality of life. However, few attempts have been made to probe the potential threats posed by underground space use to urban sustainability. Disregarding these threats and the socio-environmental losses accruing to unreasonable underground space use will lead to failure in the decision-making process, particularly the cost-benefit analysis, of underground space development and may to some extent compromise the urban sustainability. This research intends to investigate the potential socio-environmental losses caused by underground space use for urban sustainability from the perspectives of underground assets, including geothermal energy, groundwater, geomaterials, historical heritage, space continuum and organisms, based on their contributions to sustainable development goals (SDGs), and sets up a framework for the monetary valuation of these losses. It is anticipated that the findings of this study will assist the future planning and decision-making process in developing the sustainable urban underground space.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: December 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 World Development, Volume 124〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Miriam Romero, Meike Wollni, Katrin Rudolf, Rosyani Asnawi, Bambang Irawan〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉This study evaluates the effects of two policy instruments on the adoption of native tree planting in oil palm plantations. The first instrument is an information campaign on tree planting in oil palm. The second instrument combines the information campaign with a structural intervention that provides native tree seedlings for free. We implemented a randomized controlled trial in oil-palm growing villages in Jambi, Indonesia. Our study addresses the underlying mechanisms of behavioral change, by investigating how the policy instruments shape farmers’ perceptions, intentions and actual adoption decisions. The results show that information campaigns and structural interventions can motivate tree planting among smallholder oil palm farmers in Indonesia. While both treatments have a positive and significant effect, the intervention combining information with seedling provision leads to significantly higher adoption rates, indicating that overcoming structural barriers is critical. While changes in perceptions and intentions fully mediate the effect of the information campaign on adoption, they can only partially explain the effect of the combined intervention. Facilitating easy access to high-quality inputs is critical to motivate wider adoption among large numbers of potential users.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: October 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 147〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Haiyan Deng, Ruifa Hu, Carl Pray, Yanhong Jin〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉China has put in place a series of policies to support private companies to engage in biotechnology research. This study uses data from a survey of 103 major agribusiness firms in the agricultural chemical and seed industries in China to evaluate the impact of government policies on private R&D investment in biotechnology. The results show that firms with positive profit expectation, public R&D subsidies, R&D collaboration with universities/research institutes or state-owned enterprises are more likely to embark on biotechnology research activities. Past patenting activity, R&D subsidies and collaboration with public sector research increase firms' biotechnology R&D investment while firms already selling genetically modified products and firms that are state-owned spend less on R&D. Our findings suggest that government policy does have an important impact on firms' biotechnology R&D investment.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: October 2019〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 147〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Yong Liu, Jun-liang Du, Jin-bi Yang, Wu-yong Qian, Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The research and development (R&D) of general purpose technologies (GPTs) is a collaborative effort of innovation involving multiple stakeholders, which has received extensive attention worldwide. Considering the characteristics of China's R&D of Nano-GPT, this research mainly makes two contributions: (1) Based on the theory of conflict analysis, a theoretical framework of Chinese GPTs super-conflict equilibrium is constructed to analyze the decision-making behavior among stakeholders, which enriches the theory of GPTs; (2) Under the framework of super-conflict equilibrium of GPTs, an incentive mechanism is designed to promote the R&D of GPTs from the perspective of cost sharing, and its incentive effect is stable and sustainable. In addition, taking “Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics (SINANO) of Jiangsu in China” as a case, this paper provides some interesting management suggestions through numerical simulation analysis, which are more suitable for developing countries with similar R&D situation in China's GPTs.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 20 March 2018〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Joyce V. Zwartkruis, Holger Berg, Andries F. Hof, Marcel T.J. Kok〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉In this paper three approaches on transitions pathways are combined to study the role of agricultural nature conservation in the Dutch land use domain for achieving internationally agreed climate and biodiversity targets. The three perspectives used are the Multilevel Perspective (MLP), Initiative Based Learning (IBL) and Integrated Assessment Modelling (IAM). The analysis provides insights in how the combination of different research approaches can lead to more comprehensive policy advice on how agricultural nature conservation could help to achieve internationally agreed sustainability goals related to climate change and biodiversity. IAM shows under which conditions agricultural nature conservation could be consistent with European and global long-term goals regarding food security, biodiversity and climate. MLP provides insight into the extent in which agricultural nature conservation has affected or changed the existing nature and agricultural regimes. IBL, finally, reveals the challenges of encouraging agricultural nature conservation with policy measures. Our analysis shows that a combined perspective provides a deeper understanding of the underlying processes, reasons and motives of agricultural nature conservation, leading to more comprehensive policy recommendations.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 16 March 2018〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Victor Chang, Yuanyuan Wang, Gary Wills〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉This study aims to explore factors influencing behavioral intention to adopt hearing aids among old adults in smart cities. It argues that trust is a moderator to influence the relationship between attitude, subjective norm and individual's behavioral intention in smart cities. This study tests hypotheses using a sample of 103 respondents from six smart cities in China. The results reveal that attitude is main factor influencing individual's behavioral intention. Subjective norm and trust are both not statistically significant at the 95% confidence interval in the model of multiple-regression. Interestingly, it finds that trust moderates the relationship between subjective norm and individual's behavioral intention. It means that the audiologists' advice can positively affect person's behavioral intention in smart cities. The findings imply that the Theory of Reasoned Action can be partially used to explain the person's behavioral intention in Chinese context. This study contributes to encourage old people to use smart hospitals to consult audiologists about hearing loss and hearing aids rehabilitation. Hence, hearing aids can improve their quality of life (QoL), which can be reflected by the improved standard of living, better access to treatments and also the positive sentiment about their life, including comfort, friendship, happiness and a closer connection to the society.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 19 September 2017〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Technological Forecasting and Social Change〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Raj V. Mahto, Olga Belousova, Saurabh Ahluwalia〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The economic philosophy of abundance has provided a new portal to view disruptive innovation. After decades of the world's middle class shrinking and the poor becoming poorer the abundance concept has created an interest in the “Rising Billion” transforming the poor into a more viable economic force and grow a worldwide vibrant middle class throughout the developed, developing and underdeveloped world. The abundance concept provides a new set of potential problems that are spurring new opportunities. The 21st century grand challenges have been enumerated by many but include at least six key basic human necessities: healthcare; water, education; food generation, energy, and the environment. The key to “Abundance” is to better understand the disruptive innovation phenomena, and how it can be used for social change. Scholars have utilized different perspectives to explain innovation phenomenon, but literature on disruptive innovation can benefit from a coherent theoretical framework that can explain origins of disruptive innovation and the role of scarcity/abundance in that process. In this paper, we provide one such theoretical framework to better explain and understand the relationship among scarcity, abundance, and innovation concepts from a market perspective. More specifically, this paper address the need to understand how radical or disruptive innovations occur to create a more abundant world and what market conditions motivates innovators, especially in communities enduring poverty and scarcity of resources such as the “Bottom Billion” and the shrinking middle class to do so. We build a theoretical model of disruptive innovation in a resource-constrained environment by integrating arguments from the theory of social capital, disruptive innovation and entrepreneurial action, and social innovation.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉