Spatial Heterogeneity of China’s Environmental Regulation on Industrial Pollution: Evidence from a Top–Down Environmental Enforcement Action

To obtain precise information about enterprises’ pollution control and take corresponding environmental protection measures is the key to preventing and controlling industrial pollution. Taking the lead–acid battery industry as an example, this paper employs data from the Environmental Enforcement Action to analyze the urban–rural and inter-provincial distributions of pollution-intensive enterprises and to quantitatively verify the spatial differences in China’s environmental regulation on industrial pollution. The study finds that lead–acid battery manufacturing enterprises are mainly located in rural areas instead of urban areas; most pollution-intensive firms located in industrial parks, especially those approved by governments below the provincial level. The multivariate logistic model analysis finds that environmental regulation in urban districts is more strict than that in towns and villages, while the suburban areas are the laxest; environmental regulation in national-level development zones is more strict than that in provincial-level development zones, while zones below the provincial level are the laxest. In general, the environmental regulation is stricter in urban areas than in rural areas, and stricter in clustered space than in scattered space, while most inter-provincial environmental regulations have no significant differences. Local governments should effectively allocate conventional environmental law enforcement resources and shift the focus of law enforcement downwards to parks below the provincial level, and on suburbs and townships.

Large-scale forest conservation and restoration programs significantly contributed to land surface greening in China

China has implemented a portfolio of large-scale forest conservation and restoration programs (FCRPs) to advance the sustainable management of forests. However, the contributions of these programs to forest recovery and land surface greening were generally evaluated on a local scale, which hindered the systematic planning of FCRPs. In this study, we analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of tree cover change before and after the intensification of FCRPs using Mann-Kendall test and Theil-Sen's slope estimator. With the improved phenology-based residual trend analysis (P-RESTREND) method, we derived the spatiotemporal patterns of human-induced tree cover (TCH) change on the national scale. Then, we calculated effectiveness index of FCRPs at the provincial level, based on which the effectiveness levels for the 31 provinces of mainland China were classified. Our study showed that the area of forested lands with a significant greening trend was almost five times larger in the post-intensification phase (1999–2015) than in the pre-intensification phase of FCRPs (1982–1998). More than 29.9% of the forested lands were significantly improved in tree cover by human activities in the post-intensification phase. Provinces with high effectiveness level were generally distributed in humid areas, whereas the majority of provinces with low and moderate-low effectiveness levels were spread in arid and semi-arid regions. We concluded that the implementation of FCRPs had contributed greatly to the land surface greening in China. Moreover, the effectiveness of FCRPs in forest recovery was heterogeneous at the provincial level and was driven by multiple natural and socioeconomic factors.

Brněnské školství v kontextu lex Perek

The main aim of this study is to present an analysis of the education conditions in the provincial capital of the Moravian Margraviate in the context of the national struggle for compulsory schooling between the German municipal government and Czech national activists at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. At the provincial level, the sharpest edges of Czech­ ­German conflict were to be blunted by the Moravian Compromise concluded in 1905, which included four provincial laws for the most troublesome areas, including the lex Perek. This study analyses and interprets the situation in Brno education through the lens of Czech emancipatory efforts from the mid-1870s to the passing of the lex Perek. Furthermore, it explains the situation after its passing, when the fight for the child was not coming to an end despite the concluded Czech­‑German Compromise – it rather escalated. This text thus deals with the real impact of one of the four provincial laws concluded within the Moravian Compromise, using the example of pre­‑war Brno. It is a probe into the issue at hand that uses the example of the provincial capital. The probe represents a practice that was far removed from the contemporary government’s presentation of the concluded compromise as a „model“ solution to the problematic Czech­‑German coexistence within the multinational monarchy.

Digital Transformation: Smart Strategy in Administrative Reform in Vietnam

Objectives: Digital transformation is becoming such a big trend that countries worldwide cannot resist because it brings prosperity and development to social progress. Therefore, countries, especially emerging countries, need to quickly bring the latest technology advances into socio-economic development. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to point out the theoretical issues of digital transformation, the advantages and challenges, and their impact on Vietnam's provincial administrative reform and forecast the trend of impacts of the digital transformation to administrative reform at the provincial level. Methods/Analysis: Qualitative and quantitative research methods have been used together, in which quantitative methods used available literature sources. The qualitative method has been developed based on designing two questionnaires on digital transformation and administrative reform, thereby exploring the current results of digital transformation and administrative reform in a cross-section. Findings: Research has shown that the reality of digital transformation and administrative reform in provincial administrative agencies in Vietnam is still limited. Although administrative reform is superior to digital transformation, they are closely positive related. Novelty /Improvement: Research shows that administrative reform at the provincial level in Vietnam will become more competent and more efficient when administrative agencies promote the application of digital transformation; both digital transformation and administration reform need to be concerned at the same time. Moreover, a more focus on developing digital capacity and skills for civil servants is necessary for digital transformation and administrative reform to achieve high efficiency. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-04-06 Full Text: PDF

Relationship between out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and COVID-19 during the first and second pandemic wave. The importance of monitoring COVID-19 incidence

Background The relationship between COVID-19 and out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) has been shown during different phases of the first pandemic wave, but little is known about how to predict where cardiac arrests will increase in case of a third peak. Aim To seek for a correlation between the OHCAs and COVID-19 daily incidence both during the two pandemic waves at a provincial level. Methods We considered all the OHCAs occurred in the provinces of Pavia, Lodi, Cremona, Mantua and Varese, in Lombardy Region (Italy), from 21/02/2020 to 31/12/2020. We divided the study period into period 1, the first 157 days after the outbreak and including the first pandemic wave and period 2, the second 158 days including the second pandemic wave. We calculated the cumulative and daily incidence of OHCA and COVID-19 for the whole territory and for each province for both periods. Results A significant correlation between the daily incidence of COVID-19 and the daily incidence of OHCAs was observed both during the first and the second pandemic period in the whole territory (R = 0.4, p<0.001 for period 1 and 2) and only in those provinces with higher COVID-19 cumulative incidence (period 1: Cremona R = 0.3, p = 0.001; Lodi R = 0.4, p<0.001; Pavia R = 0.3; p = 0.01; period 2: Varese R = 0.4, p<0.001). Conclusions Our results suggest that strictly monitoring the pandemic trend may help in predict which territories will be more likely to experience an OHCAs’ increase. That may also serve as a guide to re-allocate properly health resources in case of further pandemic waves.