CO2 Emission from Brickfields in Bangladesh: Can Ethical Responsibility by Doing Reduce Level of Emission?

Recent years’ rapid urbanization and then rural to urban migration have created increasing demands of bricks usages in Bangladesh. However, brick industry has been largely using inefficient, dirty technology and burns woods-coal. It injects huge volume of CO2 in atmosphere. For policy guidance on the issue, this study analyzes the basic issues of CO2 emission from brickfields in terms of marginal damage (MD) analysis. Findings show that the marginal social costs are higher than marginal private (producer of bricks) costs where brickfields are benefiting with the expense of Bangladeshi society as a whole. As time passes by, rises of brick-prices have been causing upward trends of welfare losses where producers’ surpluses are dominating in the total surplus. This economic situation has been causing higher deadweight loss year after year. Addressing the issues, national strategies and policy actions are needed. Reforestation efforts can be achieved in multi-faucets: brick-fields’ charity, government policies on planting trees & policies on motivational efforts inspiring citizens of Bangladesh. Motivational policy can be: i) inspiring celebration individual’s “Birthday, Having 1st child in family and Event of marriage” by planting trees, ii) forcing to utilize green tech in brick kilns and iii) conducting academic research where financial supports are in need. Keywords: brickfields, effluent gases emission, causes social costs & deadweight loss, reforestation, motivational efforts of government policies

Rural Structural Transformation and Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria

Rural structural transformation is best defined as structural changes in the rural areas occasioned by government policies and programmes with the intention of altering the contributions of major sector of the economy for the enhancement of agricultural sector. The study aimed at investigating the impact of rural structural transformation on agricultural productivity in Nigeria. The methodology adopted for the study was Structural Autoregression (SVAR). Six variables of expenditure on education (EXPE), expenditure on health (EXPH), expenditure on electricity (EXPEL), expenditure on telecommunication (EXPTC), expenditure on roads and construction (EXPRC) and expenditure on agriculture (EXPA). Of the six explanatory variables only expenditure on agriculture was found to be negatively related to agricultural productivity, while the others were positively related to it. Several reasons of which of official corruption by the handlers of agricultural funds could possibly be one of the reasons for the negative relationship between expenditure on agriculture and agricultural productivity. Among many other recommendations was the need to provide clinics and health centres to the rural areas, provision of good and accessible roads, provision of electricity and internet facilities. This will act as motivating factors in curbing rural-urban migration, and by extension improve the lots of agricultural productivity in Nigeria. Keywords: rural, structural transformation, agricultural productivity, agricultural policies and structural VAR

Evaluation of the socio-economic impact of landcover / landuse changes in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria using remote sensing and geographic information systems

The study aimed at evaluating the socio-economic impact of landcover / landuse changes in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria using remote sensing and GIS with a view to improving the quality of life and social development through its objectives; to identify the changes of the landcover and landuse pattern of the study area for a period of 30 years i.e. 1987 to 2002 to 2017, to evaluate the socio-economic and environmental impact of these changes and to predict future impact of landcover / landuse changes in the study area. The methodology adopted in this study involved sourcing of satellite data from United States Geological Survey (USGS) for the period of years under study, social survey in Owerri Municipal Area for socio-economic impact monitoring. ArcGIS 10.5 and QGIS 2.9 software were used for data processing, analysis and presentation. The study observed a significant increase in built-up area from 1987 (34%) to 2017 (65%), on the contrary, there was a noticeable decrease in the class of bare land (26% to 12%) and vegetation. (37% to 15%) followed by water body which kept fluctuating as result of rainfall. Rapid population growth triggered by rural urban migration coupled with hasty socio-economic development were the main drivers of these changes. Results showed that remote sensing and GIS approach are recommended for further studies as the tools are efficient for landcover/landuse mapping.

Optimal Urban Logistics - Through the Choice of Sustainable Axes

In a world where urbanization is becoming more and more widespread, big figures can be seen around internal urban migration further aggravating the environmental urban situation, which results from several previous factors. This is the case with globalization, online shopping, or polluting industrial and human sources. The major solutions are centered primarily on the concern for urban mobility, the involvement of the stakeholders concerned, the optimization of journeys, the use of lanes and roads, the choice of vehicles as well as the zoning or choice of logistics locations. Sustainability is one of the primary elements of flow management; it is one of the most important pillars of the concept of "urban logistics". Indeed, the final goal goes beyond the delivery of goods, going so far as to place the environment as an essential support for urban logistics. In this paper we present a literature review on sustainable logistics, we will try to answer the following problem: Urban logistics: Where are we? To respond to this problem, we are taking the following approach: Presentation of the basic concepts, choice of articles to be used for the study which will induce us to determine the axes and the main actors, with the aim of specifying the most predominant aspects which must be treated and prioritized in order to make urban logistics more optimal.

DIMENSIONS OF URBANIZATION AND POPULATION TRENDS IN NAGAUR CITY

This paper attempts to analyse the trends of urbanization based on three-decade census data during 1991, 2001, and 2011 in Nagaur city. Various dimensions of urbanization have been studied through charts and diagrams. For this purpose, the urban parameters such as the growth rate of the urban population, gender dynamics, literacy rate, density, work, and economic structure of the Nagaur city have been examined. Results show that in these last three decades the urban structure of Nagaur city has been changed due to rapid industrialization and rural to urban migration. Urbanization in Nagaur has been relatively slow compared to many developing megacities. As per data released by Govt. of India, Nagaur is an Urban Agglomeration coming under the category of Class I UAs/Towns. According to trends, Nagaur is at the acceleration stage of the process of urbanization. Rapid urbanization raises many issues that might have both positive and negative impacts on the environment. In this situation, monitoring urbanization is vital for planners, management, government, and non-government organizations for implementing policies to optimize the use of natural resources and accommodate development at the same time minimizing the impact on the environment.

Rural Transformation and Labor Market Outcomes among Rural Youths in Nigeria

In Nigeria, unemployment in rural areas translates to economic problems, such as high levels of rural–urban migration. Interventions aimed at promoting rural transformation and development are designed to generate employment by promoting the growth of sectors such as manufacturing and services in rural areas. In this study, the General Household Survey (GHS) panel data for the post-planting and post-harvest periods of the 2011/2012 and 2015/2016 cropping seasons for Nigeria was used to investigate developments in rural areas in Nigeria between 2011 and 2015, and identified how these developments influenced labor market outcomes among rural youths. Fixed effect models were employed to control for unobserved heterogeneity that may exist because of the different years in the data used. Key levers of sustainable social and economic development, such as access to finance, health services, markets, and infrastructure such as electricity, were considered. The empirical results from the study revealed that being educated as well as having access to infrastructure and information had positive effects on the number of youths that took up wage/salary employment in the rural areas. The study concluded that the diversification of youths into other sectors would have higher growth effects on the development of rural areas, as they can invest more in agriculture, while also reducing the level of dependence on the sector. The study recommends an increase in budgetary allocations for education and rural development projects, with a special focus on electricity and financial institutions, while increasing access to information on available job opportunities.