Local Institutions and Climate Change Adaptation: Appraising Dysfunctional and Functional Roles of Local Institutions from the Bilate Basin Agropastoral Livelihood Zone of Sidama, Southern Ethiopia

Firew Bekele; Degefa Tolossa; Teshale Woldeamanuel

doi:10.3390/cli8120149

Local Institutions and Climate Change Adaptation: Appraising Dysfunctional and Functional Roles of Local Institutions from the Bilate Basin Agropastoral Livelihood Zone of Sidama, Southern Ethiopia

Climate ◽

10.3390/cli8120149 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. 149

Author(s):

Firew Bekele ◽

Degefa Tolossa ◽

Teshale Woldeamanuel

Keyword(s):

General Education ◽

Local Governments ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Local Level ◽

Southern Ethiopia ◽

Local Institutions ◽

Climate Data ◽

Slope Test ◽

Indigenous Institutions ◽

Grand Strategies

This study aimed to appraise the role of local institutions in adaptation to changing climate at the local level in the Bilate Basin Agropastoral Livelihood Zone of Ethiopia. Thirty-one years of climate data were analyzed by employing the Mann–Kendall trend and Sen’s slope test techniques. The survey was conducted on 400 households that were systematically randomized from 7066 households, while community-level data were collected through the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) technique. The entire analysis was framed by a tetragonal model. The results of the analysis indicated that temperature exhibited a significantly increasing trend, while rainfall, which is statistically related to temperature, showed a decreasing trend, resulting in lingering droughts and human and animal diseases. Major livestock declined by 69%. As a response, while Sidama indigenous institutions were well-functioning and nurtured through local knowledge, and the governmental and civic ones were entrenched with various limitations. Contextual fitness and compatibility, interplay, inclusiveness, and sustainability of their operations in temporal and spatial scales were some of their limitations. Therefore, federal and local governments should focus on monitoring, evaluating, and learning aspects of their grand strategies, review general education, farmers’ credit, and civic institutions’ governance policies and strengthen the synergy of civic, government, and indigenous institutions.

Spatial and Institutional Analysis of the Voivodships Expenditure on Culture in the Years 2003 – 2015

e-Finanse ◽

10.2478/fiqf-2019-0021 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 67-75

Author(s):

Adam Mateusz Suchecki

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Public Administration ◽

Local Governments ◽

Local Level ◽

Institutional Analysis ◽

The State ◽

Cultural Institutions ◽

Location Quotient ◽

Local Authorities ◽

National Heritage

AbstractFollowing the completion of the process of decentralisation of public administration in Poland in 2003, a number of tasks implemented previously by the state authorities were transferred to the local level. One of the most significant changes to the financing and management methods of the local authorities was the transfer of tasks related to culture and national heritage to the set of tasks implemented by local governments. As a result of the decentralisation process, the local government units in Poland were given significant autonomy in determining the purposes of their budgetary expenditures on culture. At the same time, they were obliged to cover these expenses from their own revenues.This paper focuses on the analysis of expenditures on culture covered by the voivodship budgets, taking into consideration the structure of cultural institutions by their types, between 2003-2015. The location quotient (LQ) was applied to two selected years (2006 and 2015) to illustrate the diversity of expenditures on culture in individual voivodships.

Incentives for the development of industrial parks (on the example of the border regions of Poland)

Socio-Economic Problems of the Modern Period of Ukraine ◽

10.36818/2071-4653-2020-2-11 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 78-87

Author(s):

Yaroslava Kalat

Keyword(s):

Local Governments ◽

Cost Minimization ◽

Local Level ◽

Business Environment ◽

Local Communities ◽

Financial Assistance ◽

Industrial Park ◽

Border Regions ◽

Industrial Parks ◽

Spatial Policy

In the search for efficient decisions directed at the stimulation of regional development and improvement of regions’ innovativeness and investment attractiveness, the EU regions have long ago started paying attention to local communities. In particular, Polish local governments are granted an opportunity to conduct an active spatial policy of investment attraction using various instruments. In this context, the industrial parks play an important role among the created institutes of the business environment, because they create advantages for local communities and businesses. In particular, they promote investment attraction, entrepreneurship activation, employment and jobs increase, material cost minimization, etc. At the same time, the development of entrepreneurship environment institutes requires support at national, regional, and local levels. The development will be almost impossible without the creation of proper legal, political, economic, and social conditions for their activity. The paper aims to define major stimuli of industrial park development based on the Polish experience, the economic structure of which is similar to the Ukrainian one. This will contribute to the development of the ways to boost industrial park development in Ukraine, especially in the border areas. For the matter, the author outlines the major instruments used by Polish local communities to boost investment and entrepreneurship activity in the framework of industrial park development. The scientific paper emphasizes the analysis of legislation on creation, functioning, and support of Polish industrial park development, and further perspectives of their activity. Special attention is paid to general characteristics of the condition of industrial parks located in Polish border regions. The advantages of each of them are determined and examples of their creation and development are given. The research resulted in the allocation of two groups of stimuli of industrial parks development which are the precondition, according to the author, of industrial parks becoming the instrument of investment attraction, economic boost of the territories, and entrepreneurship activity growth: the stimuli of development of industrial parks’ organizational structure (public financial assistance; information and advisory support; grans of European funds; international cooperation / partnership; independent spatial policy at the local level) and the stimuli of entrepreneurship development in industrial parks (infrastructure (physical and soft); public financial assistance; tax incentives; investment grants; financial loans).

Concept and components of the financial-investment maintenance of local governance

Regional Economy ◽

10.36818/1562-0905-2020-1-11 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 100-112

Author(s):

Zenoviy Siryk

Keyword(s):

Social Services ◽

Local Governments ◽

Local Governance ◽

Local Level ◽

National Standards ◽

Investment Policy ◽

Financial Resources ◽

Financial Investment ◽

Balanced Development ◽

And Function

The issues related to the management of financial resources of territorial communities, financial independence of local governments and forming of efficient financial-investment policy to secure the balanced development of local communities and territories become of utmost importance in conditions of financial decentralization and administrative-territorial reform in Ukraine. The problem issues concerning the forming of financial-investment maintenance of local governance directly impact the capacity of a territorial community that should have financial, material, and other resources in the volumes sufficient to completely accomplish the tasks and function of local governments and provide social services to the population at the level stipulated by national standards. The forming of financial-investment maintenance of local governance is revealed to be directly influencing the capacity of a territorial community that should have financial, material, and other resources in the volumes sufficient to completely accomplish the tasks and function of local governments and provide social services to the population. The expansion of local governments’ competences and granting them greater independence are substantiated to be requiring more responsibility in the financial-investment policy implementation on the local level, forming of conditions to perform the economic activity, and develop businesses by all economic entities, and promoting favorable investment climate in the region. Based on the analysis of approaches to the definition of the nature of “financial maintenance” and “investment maintenance” in the context of the peculiarities of local governments’ activity, the paper suggests understanding the “financial-investment maintenance of local governance” as a set of opportunities and activities on distribution and use of financial resources and territories’ resources for the creation of conditions necessary for the efficient functioning of local governments and realization of their competences.

Renewable Energy Attitudes and Behaviour of Local Governments in Poland

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14102765 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (10) ◽

pp. 2765

Author(s):

Joanna Rakowska ◽

Irena Ozimek

Keyword(s):

Renewable Energy ◽

Local Governments ◽

Local Development ◽

Local Level ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Local Authorities ◽

The Public ◽

Energy Behavior ◽

Public Aid ◽

Energy Projects

The deployment of renewable energy at the local level can contribute significantly to mitigating climate change, improving energy security and increasing social, economic and environmental benefits. In many countries local authorities play an important role in the local development, but renewable energy deployment is not an obligatory task for them. Hence there are two research questions: (1) Do local governments think investments in renewable energy (RE) are urgent and affordable within the local budgets? (2) How do they react to the public aid co-financing investments in renewable energy? To provide the answer we performed qualitative analysis and non-parametric tests of data from a survey of 252 local authorities, analysis of 292 strategies of local development and datasets of 1170 renewable energy projects co-financed by EU funds under operational programs 2007–2013 and 2014–2020 in Poland. Findings showed that local authorities’ attitudes were rather careful, caused by financial constraints of local budgets and the scope of obligatory tasks, which made renewable energy investments not the most urgent. Public aid was a factor significantly affecting local authorities’ behavior. It triggered local authorities’ renewable energy initiatives, increasing the number and scope of renewable energy investments as well cooperation with other municipalities and local communities. Despite this general trend, there were also considerable regional differences in local authorities’ renewable energy behavior.

Estimating Health over Space and Time: A Review of Spatial Microsimulation Applied to Public Health

J ◽

10.3390/j4020015 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 182-192

Author(s):

Dianna M. Smith ◽

Alison Heppenstall ◽

Monique Campbell

Keyword(s):

Population Health ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Local Level ◽

Health Data ◽

Future Planning ◽

Academic Researchers ◽

Quality Health ◽

Spatial Microsimulation ◽

Dynamic Populations ◽

Economic Studies

There is an ongoing demand for data on population health, for reasons of resource allocation, future planning and crucially to address inequalities in health between people and between populations. Although there are regular sources of data at coarse spatial scales, such as countries or large sub-national units such as states, there is often a lack of good quality health data at the local level. One method to develop reliable estimates of population health outcomes is spatial microsimulation, an approach that has its roots in economic studies. Here, we share a review of this method for estimating health in populations, explaining the different approaches available and examples where the method is applied successfully for creating both static and dynamic populations. Recent notable advances in the method that allow uncertainty to be represented are highlighted, along with the evolving approaches to validation that are an ongoing challenge in small-area estimation. The summary serves as a primer for academics new to the area of research as well as an overview for non-academic researchers who consider using these models for policy evaluations.

Analysis of livestock breeders’ perceptions and their adaptation measures to climate change in Morocco‘s arid rangelands

Change and Adaptation in Socio-Ecological Systems ◽

10.1515/cass-2020-0100 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 1-25

Author(s):

Wadii Snaibi

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Local Level ◽

Small Scale ◽

Climate Data ◽

Chi Square ◽

Adaptation Measures ◽

Significant Difference ◽

The Difference ◽

Eastern Morocco ◽

Climate Analysis

AbstractThe high plateaus of eastern Morocco are already suffering from the adverse impacts of climate change (CC), as the local populations’ livelihoods depend mainly on extensive sheep farming and therefore on natural resources. This research identifies breeders’ perceptions about CC, examines whether they correspond to the recorded climate data and analyses endogenous adaptation practices taking into account the agroecological characteristics of the studied sites and the difference between breeders’ categories based on the size of owned sheep herd. Data on perceptions and adaptation were analyzed using the Chi-square independence and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Climate data were investigated through Mann-Kendall, Pettitt and Buishand tests.Herders’ perceptions are in line with the climate analysis in term of nature and direction of observed climate variations (downward trend in rainfall and upward in temperature). In addition, there is a significant difference in the adoption frequency of adaptive strategies between the studied agroecological sub-zones (χ2 = 14.525, p <.05) due to their contrasting biophysical and socioeconomic conditions, as well as among breeders’ categories (χ2 = 10.568, p < .05) which attributed mainly to the size of sheep flock. Policy options aimed to enhance local-level adaptation should formulate site-specific adaptation programs and prioritise the small-scale herders.

Law reform for life: how to unleash the guiding principles of ecologically sustainable development to improve human relationships with (the rest of) urban biodiversity

Asia Pacific Journal of Environmental Law ◽

10.4337/apjel.2021.01.03 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 66-89

Author(s):

Lachlan Penninkilampi

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Local Governments ◽

Global Climate ◽

Local Level ◽

Urban Biodiversity ◽

Law And Policy ◽

Guiding Principles ◽

Ecologically Sustainable ◽

Ecologically Sustainable Development ◽

Biodiversity Governance

Urbanization is arguably the most severe and irreversible driver of environmental change, particularly with respect to biodiversity. This is the case even in Australia, a megadiverse country with a sophisticated federal regime of biodiversity governance. Yet, life persists in urban worlds. In the context of global climate and ecological crises, this article endeavours to illustrate how law and policy can grapple with the complexities of urban biodiversity and enable it to flourish. First, the article outlines the current approaches to urban biodiversity: what is it, what is it like, why does it matter and how do humans think of it? Second, the article analyses the current state of biodiversity governance in Australia, focusing particularly on the laws and policies of the Commonwealth, New South Wales, and local governments in Greater Sydney. Finally, the article details a program of reform which revisits the original guiding principles of ecologically sustainable development, illustrating how they could be unleashed for the better governance of urban biodiversity with respect to decision-making, the administration of law, issues at scale, the economy, valuation techniques and community participation. The program includes not only systemic and multi-scalar reforms, but also local-level reforms which have significant yet often overlooked potential to encourage pro-biodiversity behaviours in everyday life. The aim is to reveal just some of the many ways in which hope can be creatively transformed into action for a biodiverse urban future – that is, to reveal the possibilities of law and policy to enable urban biodiversity to be better recognized, understood, valued, protected and enhanced as Australia develops in the twenty-first century.

Mafia infiltration, public administration and local institutions: A comparative study in Northern Italy

European Journal of Criminology ◽

10.1177/1477370818803050 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 17 (5) ◽

pp. 540-562 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Joselle Dagnes ◽

Davide Donatiello ◽

Valentina Moiso ◽

Davide Pellegrino ◽

Rocco Sciarrone ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Administration ◽

Construction Industry ◽

Social Relations ◽

Local Level ◽

Northern Italy ◽

Comparative Case Study ◽

Local Institutions ◽

Opportunity Structure ◽

Different Types

Nuanced explanations of the factors underpinning the mafia’s movements across territories have recently been proposed. However, more light must be shed on the mechanisms through which mafiosi try to infiltrate the legal economy in non-traditional territories. Accordingly, this study aims to micro-found interactions and exchanges that mainly involve mafiosi, politicians and economic actors in expansion areas. Focusing on the local level, we will show how the misuse of several administrative tools generates a profitable opportunity structure for mafiosi. To this end, we present an in-depth comparative case study of three events involving the construction industry that took place in Northern Italy. The main findings show that: (i) mafiosi are skilled at smoothing social relations, enlarging and consolidating opaque networks predating their arrival; (ii) they give rise to different types of mutual exchanges and network structures.

USING PARTICIPATORY APPROACH TO IMPROVE AVAILABILITY OF SPATIAL DATA FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT

ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprs-annals-iii-4-w1-139-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol III-4/W1 ◽

pp. 139-144

Author(s):

T. Kliment ◽

V. Cetl ◽

H. Tomič ◽

J. Lisiak ◽

M. Kliment

Keyword(s):

Spatial Data ◽

Local Governments ◽

Local Level ◽

Property Tax ◽

Open Data ◽

Quality Level ◽

Tax Rates ◽

Geospatial Information ◽

Data Infrastructure ◽

Participatory Gis

Nowadays, the availability of authoritative geospatial features of various data themes is becoming wider on global, regional and national levels. The reason is existence of legislative frameworks for public sector information and related spatial data infrastructure implementations, emergence of support for initiatives as open data, big data ensuring that online geospatial information are made available to digital single market, entrepreneurs and public bodies on both national and local level. However, the availability of authoritative reference spatial data linking the geographic representation of the properties and their owners are still missing in an appropriate quantity and quality level, even though this data represent fundamental input for local governments regarding the register of buildings used for property tax calculations, identification of illegal buildings, etc. We propose a methodology to improve this situation by applying the principles of participatory GIS and VGI used to collect observations, update authoritative datasets and verify the newly developed datasets of areas of buildings used to calculate property tax rates issued to their owners. The case study was performed within the district of the City of Požega in eastern Croatia in the summer 2015 and resulted in a total number of 16072 updated and newly identified objects made available online for quality verification by citizens using open source geospatial technologies.

Is the neighbourhood a level suited to the thermal evaluation of energy loss from buildings?

Abstracts of the ICA ◽

10.5194/ica-abs-1-253-2019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 1-2

Author(s):

Nathalie Molines ◽

Eduard Antaluca ◽

Fabien Lamarque

Keyword(s):

Built Environment ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Local Governments ◽

Input Data ◽

Local Level ◽

Gas Emissions ◽

Neighbourhood Level ◽

Urban Level ◽

Building Level

Abstract. Pursuant to the Kyoto Protocol, France is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions four-fold (MEDDE, 2013). To fulfil this commitment, the French government has established a legislative and regulatory environment to ensure the contribution of France’s local government bodies to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (Chanard et al., 2011). This transfer of responsibility for energy action to the local level (Theys and Vidalenc, 2011; Bertrand and Richard, 2014) has to be built on quantified goals (Godinot, 2011) and comprehensive action based on three levels of public intervention: exemplarity of public assets and services, public policies and outreach (Chanard et al., 2011). However, public action at local level stumbles across the difficulty of working on the real energy efficiency of urban forms at the level of the city – and not simply that of a building or block (Maïza, 2007; Arantes et al., 2016).The modelling and mapping of energy losses offer a tangible quantitative aid to support cities in their decision-making.Thermal modelling of a built environment is traditionally carried out at urban level, based on macro-economic input data or the typology of buildings (Kavgic et al., 2010), or at building level, based on physical, empirical or statistical data (Magyari et al., 2016, Crawley et al., 2001)). It still has many limitations that need to be addressed. Use of aerial thermography at urban level provides an overview of heat losses from the built environment and is a useful tool in raising residents’ awareness of the importance of isolating their homes. However, it does suffer from a number of biases and limitations, and ultimately acts more as a catalyst for precise, expensive studies at building level (Molines et al., 2017).Between these two levels, the neighbourhood level could produce relatively precise simulations at a reasonable cost. There are various means of tackling this level. These methods are be more or less complex, long and costly to implement and, of course, more or less precise. Here we present the results of a comparative analysis of three methods: one at urban level and two at neighbourhood level (with and without precise thermal data). The aims include checking whether the neighbourhood is a suitable level for thermal study of the build environment with a view to convincing users to carry out energy renovation work. At neighbourhood level, various levels of precision will be provided for simulations, in order to assess the replicability of the studies carried out under more or less simplistic hypotheses.The simulations will be carried out based on a model combining various software packages (GIS, BIM, thermal simulations) and different data acquisition levels.The reliability of the results will be given critical consideration. Uncertainties will be considered alongside the potential use of the method by local governments (input data required, development time for the model, cost, etc.).