scholarly journals When Urban Planning Doctrine Meets Low Density Countryside

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-206
Author(s):  
Maarit Sireni

AbstractDrawing on an empirical analysis of Finnish local policy-makers’ views on land use planning aims in rural areas, this paper investigates local responses to the new national planning regulations set out by the Government. According to the new norms, a dense settlement structure should be promoted not only in urban centres but also in rural areas in order to curb climate change and improve the viability of communities. Based on the data obtained from an internet-based survey conducted by a regional newspaper in western Finland before municipal elections in 2008 and 2012, this paper shows that the majority of the local policy-makers challenge the new norms. They do not believe that sustainable development can be promoted by constraining building rights in the rural region characterised by a dispersed settlement structure.

2013 ◽  
pp. 1901-1912
Author(s):  
Lilik B. Prasetyo ◽  
Chandra Irawadi Wijaya ◽  
Yudi Setiawan

Java is very densely populated since it is inhabited by more than 60% of the total population of Indonesia. Based on data from the Ministry of Forestry, forest loss between 2000-2005 in Java was about 800,000 hectares. Regardless of the debate on whether the different methodologies of forest inventory applied in 2005 have resulted in an underestimation of the figure of forest loss or not, the decrease of forest cover in Java is obvious and needs immediate response. Spatial modeling of the deforestation will assist the policy makers in understanding this process and in taking it into consideration, when decisions are made on the issue. Moreover, the results can be used as data input to solve environmental problems resulting from deforestation. The authors of this chapter modeled the deforestation in Java by using logistic regression. Percentage of deforested area was considered as the response variable, whilst biophysical and socioeconomic factors, that explain the current spatial pattern in deforestation, were assigned as explanatory variables. Furthermore, the authors predicted the future deforestation process, and then, for the case of Java, it was validated with the actual deforestation derived from MODIS satellite imageries from 2000 to 2008. Results of the study showed that the impacts of population density, road density, and slope are significant. Population density and road density have negative impacts on deforestation, while slope has positive impact. Deforestation on Java Island tends to occur in remote areas with limited access, low density population and relatively steep slopes. Implication of the model is that the government should pay more attention to remote rural areas and develop good access to accelerate and create alternative non agricultural jobs in order to reduce pressure on the forest.


Author(s):  
Lilik B. Prasetyo ◽  
Chandra Irawadi Wijaya ◽  
Yudi Setiawan

Java is very densely populated since it is inhabited by more than 60% of the total population of Indonesia. Based on data from the Ministry of Forestry, forest loss between 2000-2005 in Java was about 800,000 hectares. Regardless of the debate on whether the different methodologies of forest inventory applied in 2005 have resulted in an underestimation of the figure of forest loss or not, the decrease of forest cover in Java is obvious and needs immediate response. Spatial modeling of the deforestation will assist the policy makers in understanding this process and in taking it into consideration, when decisions are made on the issue. Moreover, the results can be used as data input to solve environmental problems resulting from deforestation. The authors of this chapter modeled the deforestation in Java by using logistic regression. Percentage of deforested area was considered as the response variable, whilst biophysical and socioeconomic factors, that explain the current spatial pattern in deforestation, were assigned as explanatory variables. Furthermore, the authors predicted the future deforestation process, and then, for the case of Java, it was validated with the actual deforestation derived from MODIS satellite imageries from 2000 to 2008. Results of the study showed that the impacts of population density, road density, and slope are significant. Population density and road density have negative impacts on deforestation, while slope has positive impact. Deforestation on Java Island tends to occur in remote areas with limited access, low density population and relatively steep slopes. Implication of the model is that the government should pay more attention to remote rural areas and develop good access to accelerate and create alternative non agricultural jobs in order to reduce pressure on the forest.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Urpelainen

The surge of local climate policy is a puzzling political-economic phenomenon. Why have local policy-makers, incapable of mitigating global warming through individual emissions reductions, adopted ambitious policies while national governments refrain from action? I construct a game-theoretic model of two-level climate policy with incomplete information over political benefits. In equilibrium, the government selects a lax national regulation, and local policy-makers with private information on high local benefits choose more ambitious policies despite incentives to free ride. The analysis also suggests that even though local policy-makers prefer not to reveal information to the government, they must do so to pursue short-term political gains. Counterintuitively, new information can lead to more ambitious national regulation even if the government learns that the local political benefits are likely lower than expected. As an empirical application, I study the evolution of climate policies in the United States.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 5527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogdan-Constantin Ibanescu ◽  
Mihail Eva ◽  
Alexandra Gheorghiu

During the last decades, tourism activities were promoted by local and regional policy-makers as a universal solution for rural areas’ suffering from massive depopulation, technological delay, or economical struggles. A large debate flourished in the literature on whether and to what extent tourism could play a role in supporting rural localities. Some valid evidence was brought by researchers backing the cure-all role of tourism, as well as by those who criticized the limited, or even negative, impact of tourism on rural areas. However, following the economic crisis of 2008, the attention switched to a newer and more relevant topic: Does tourism increase the resilience performance of rural areas? Our paper tries to answer this question by focusing on both economic and demographic resilience, which are the most sensitive sectors during an important shock. Following a detailed territorial breakdown according to a twofold typology (spatial accessibility and number of employees), correlations were used to determine the impact of tourism activities on building resilience for each type of rural territory. The results indicated a positive effect of tourism activities upon economic and demographic resilience performance in highly accessible rural areas, while in peripheral areas, the impact was insignificant. This paper provides new insights into the various roles that tourism plays in rural areas and offers suggestions for local policy-makers.


Author(s):  
Charalampos Giousmpasoglou ◽  
Evangelia Marinakou ◽  
Vasileios Paliktzoglou

It can be argued that higher education (HE) in Greece has always been problematic and dysfunctional in the post-dictatorship era (1974-2008). This is evident from the fact that Greek governments have failed to reform HE according to the EU standards despite the public demand and industry needs. Additionally the existence of a large number of state universities and technological institutes (TEIs) in combination with the phenomena of: nepotism, favouritism, trade unionism, political involvement, and the creation of unnecessary departments in rural areas in order to satisfy the local voters support this argument. This chapter describes the current situation of HE in Greece. It discusses the challenges that staff, students and the government face from the impact of the economic crisis. In addition, it provides an overview of the effects of the changes in HE on the society. Finally, it explores the prospects and opportunities that exist for HE policy makers, staff and students; especially in terms of their future employability.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
António Almeida ◽  
Luiz Pinto Machado

Rural and peripheral development is still a matter of concern in several western countries. Depopulation, low density of business activities, younger people emigration and better-qualified individuals feeling that such regions have been abandoned by the government, and incapable of moving on, are among the key indicators to “understand” rural and peripheral areas. Rural tourism has long been understood as an effective catalyst of change in depressed and deprived (of entrepreneurial capacity) areas and to explore a unique set of amenities. Because of funds directed to help private investment projects in rural tourism facilities, most peripheral areas are now relatively well endowed with key infrastructures. Nevertheless, the tourism lead approach produced mixed results due to low levels of demand in some areas and lack of a cooperative behavior among providers to maximize the opportunities offered by the wide range of attractions. In this paper, we investigate to what extent investments in infrastructure helped the rural tourism sector to attract more visitors in Madeira. Based on the panel-data approach, this paper provides insights to analyze the development path of rural tourism in Madeira and to explores how local policy makers may be the “missing link” needed to improve the sector prospects based on tangible and intangible amenities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Weber

For several decades, demographic forecasts had predicted that the majority of Germany’s cities and rural areas would experience population decline in the early 21st century. Instead, recent trends show a growing population size in three out of every four German districts. As a result, there are currently severe shortages of housing and childcare in regions that were projected to decline but have instead grown in recent years. Other regions, by contrast, continue to lose young people in particular. Most of these differences between regions stem from within-country as well as international migration. An important question for both regional demographic research as well as local policy-makers is thus how well net migration rates in cities and rural districts can be predicted several years into the future. In this study, we develop models that predict migration (both within-country as well as international migration) at the level of municipalities for two demographic groups, namely young people aged 18 to 24 years, and families (people aged 30 to 49 years and underage children). We collect data on economic, demographic and other characteristics such as distances to large cities or universities for around 3,000 German municipalities (Gemeinden). The model is trained on a subset of these data from the period 2005-2009 and predicts net migration rates among young people on an unseen test dataset in the future (i.e. for the period 2011-2015). The results show that the model can predict future net migration by young people aged 18 to 24 years reasonably well (R² > 0.5), although there were quite significant changes during the period under study, for example refugee immigration to Germany. Family migration, on the other hand, cannot be predicted equally well (R² = 0.25). Some important lessons emerge concerning the predictability of regional and international migration and the usefulness of demographic forecasts for local policy-makers.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-424
Author(s):  
Jamaluddin Jamaluddin

Indonesian reformation era begins with the fall of President Suharto. Political transition and democratic transition impact in the religious life. Therefore, understandably, when the politic transition is not yet fully reflects the idealized conditions. In addition to the old paradigm that is still attached to the brain of policy makers, various policies to mirror the complexity of stuttering ruler to answer the challenges of religious life. This challenge cannot be separated from the hegemonic legacy of the past, including the politicization of SARA. Hegemony that took place during the New Order period, adversely affected the subsequent transition period. It seems among other things, with airings various conflicts nuances SARA previously muted, forced repressive. SARA issues arise as a result of the narrowing of the accommodation space of the nation state during the New Order regime. The New Order regime has reduced the definition of nation-states is only part of a group of people loyal to the government to deny the diversity of socio-cultural reality in it. To handle the inheritance, every regime in the reform era responds with a pattern and a different approach. It must be realized, that the post-reform era, Indonesia has had four changes of government. The leaders of every regime in the reform era have a different background and thus also have a vision that is different in treating the problem of racial intolerance, particularly against religious aspect. This treatment causes the accomplishment difference each different regimes of dealing with the diversity of race, religion and class that has become the hallmark of Indonesian society.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-89
Author(s):  
Matshidiso Kanjere

The South African youth faces multiple challenges that range from illiteracy, drug and alcohol abuse, crime and HIV/AIDS, to unemployment. These challenges and many other ills in society have led to interventions by government, and private and other civil societies. The government has established and initiated a number of programmes that aim at building capacity and helping the youth to cope with these multiple challenges. Some of the programmes are aimed at building leadership capacity among the impoverished youth in rural communities. A lot of money is being invested in these programmes, which are meant to develop young South Africans. However, there are some young people who do not participate in these programmes. They are also not in the formal education system, self-employed or employed elsewhere. And they are despondent. The government, private sector and non-governmental organisations are trying hard to bring these youths and others into the developmental arena, so that they can be active participants in the economy of the country in the near future. However, little research has been conducted to assess the broad impact of the various programmes in the country. The contribution that these programmes are making toward improving the livelihoods of young people has to be determined on a larger scale. Nevertheless, this article reports on an investigation that was conducted on a smaller scale, at the Lepelle-Nkumpi Local Municipality. The aim of the research was to explore the perceptions young South Africans have of the leadership development programmes that they have participated in. A mixed research approach was used to collect data and the key findings indicated that knowledge accumulated through participation in the programmes does not always translate into practical applications. However, the programmes were deemed to be valuable in instilling a positive life-view. The study recommends that support systems be established in the rural areas to assist young people with life challenges.


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