Spatio-Temporal Evolution Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Urban Service-Industry Land in China

The level of service-industry development has become an important symbol of the competitiveness and influence of cities. The study of the dynamic evolution characteristics and patterns of urban service-industry land use, the driving factors and their interactions is helpful to provide a basis for decision making in policy design and land use planning for the development of service economies. In this study we have conducted an empirical study of China, based on the methods of spatial cold- and hot-spot analysis, Tapio’s decoupling model, and GeoDetector. We found that: (1) the scales of land use, output efficiencies and development intensities of service-industries are increasing with a trend that takes the form of a “J”, “U” and “inverted U”, respectively; (2) Spatial variabilities and agglomerations are significant, with a stable spatial pattern of the scale of service-industry land use, and a gradient in the distribution of cold- and hot-spots. The dominant spatial units of output efficiency and development intensity have changed from low and lower to high and higher, and the cold- and hot-spots gather in clusters; (3) The development of service-industries is highly dependent on the input of land-resources, and only a few provinces are in a state of strong decoupling, while most are in a state of weak decoupling, with quite a few still in a state of expansive coupling, expansive negative decoupling, or even strong negative decoupling; (4) There are many driving factors for land use changes in the service-industry, with increasingly complicated and diversified relationships between each other, ranked in intensity as the scale effect > informatization > globalization > industrialization > urbanization.

The role of organizational culture in normalizing paramedic exposure to violence

Purpose Violence against paramedics is a complex – but underreported – problem. Extant research suggests organizational culture may play a role in sustaining cultural norms that downplay the significance and limit reporting. The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively explore paramedics’ experience with violence, with particular emphasis on understanding how organizational culture contributes to under-reporting. Design/methodology/approach The authors surveyed paramedics from a single, large, urban service in Ontario, Canada, asking participants to describe their experiences with violence, including whether – and why or why not – the incidents were reported. Within a constructivist epistemology, we used inductive thematic analysis with successive rounds of coding to identify and then define features of organizational culture that limit reporting. Findings A total of 196 (33% of eligible) paramedics completed the survey. Fully 98% of participants disclosed having experienced some form of violence; however, only a minority (40%) reported the incidents to management, or the police (21%). The authors defined a framework within which a lack of support from management, and consequences for offenders, implicitly positions the ability of paramedics to “brush off” violent encounters as an expected professional competency. Disclosing emotional or psychological distress in response to violent encounters invited questions as to whether the individual is personally suited to paramedic work. Originality/value While the extant research has indicated that underreporting is a problem, the findings shed light on why – a critical first step in addressing what has been described as a serious public health problem.

Evaluating the Sustainability Issues in Tourism Development: An Adverse-Impact and Serious-Level Analysis

Sustainable tourism has become an increasingly important topic in tourism development research. This study attempts to identify a set of sustainability issues that negatively affect residents’ attitudes toward tourism development. This study extends the importance-performance analysis (IPA) into the “adverse-impact and serious-level analysis” (AISLA) to evaluate sustainability issues in tourism development. A survey was carried out with 430 residents in Macau. According to the results of AISLA, the government was recommended to take “concentration” actions to reduce the levels of impacts of some economic (including inflation, urban service charge, and housing price) and environmental (including noise pollution and destruction of natural landscapes) issues. Furthermore, the government of Macau should take “keep down” actions for most of the socio-cultural issues. This work provides a new perspective for the government to develop sustainable tourism.

THE PRIORITIES OF RECONSTRUCTION OF URBAN SERVICE SUBBRANCHES OF LIFE ACTIVITY IN DONBAS: SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS

The article analyzes the state of the main city service subsectors of the sphere of life — heat-, water supply and sewerage systems of the cities affected by the armed conflict in Donbas. Also, the most acute problems of heat-, water supply and sewerage systems of the cities in Donbas which suffer from their ecological condition, quality of public utilities and economic conditions of the relevant municipal enterprises, and therefore need to be addressed restoration are systematized and generalized. Particular attention is paid to assessing the consequences of environmental threats associated with the operation of urban service subsectors in the cities of Donbas, affected by the conflict, as well as analysis of the financial, economic and technical condition of the largest enterprises of water supply and sewerage and heat utilities in post-conflict areas, the dynamics of annual deterioration of the main relevant indicators are estimated. This allows to substantiate the priorities of restoration and ensuring the reliable functioning of urban service subsectors in Donbas, including consideration of the possibility of giving priority to financing projects related to the diversification of urban water supply sources, renewal of production infrastructure, reconstruction of heating facilities with the installation of modern energy-efficient equipment, etc., expanding sources of funding for relevant measures, simplifying the conditions for receiving state aid by urban enterprises in Donetsk and Luhansk regions affected by the armed conflict, through the introduction of state programs to support and develop this functional type of territory. The developed proposals for taking priority measures aimed at restoring and ensuring the reliable operation of heat-, water supply and sewerage systems of cities in the post-conflict areas of Donbas will allow each of the stakeholders (public authorities and local governments, municipal enterprises of relevant urban sub-sectors) social (improving public utilities for all categories of consumers in the region), environmental (ensuring environmental safety and improving the environmental condition of both Donbas cities affected by the conflict and neighbouring cities and regions) and economic effects (increasing efficiency by reducing costs and losses of energy and resources in the production and transportation of relevant services and, therefore, growth of investment attractiveness of both city-serving subsectors and the sphere of life in general).

Assessing the supply for a basic urban service demand-with a focus on water-energy management in Addis Ababa city

The demand for water-energy (WE) should be addressed with their sustainable supply in the long-term planning. The total energy demand was estimated to be around 14,000000 and 53,000000 MWh for 2030 and 2050 years respectively. These years’ predicted water demand was 0.4 and 0.7 billion-cubic-meter. Based on the estimated energy and water demand, sustainable supply through WE management were determined. In 2030 and 2050 the water supply-demand balance index is around 1, showed water demand will be met for respective years, whereas the energy supply-balance after the intervention become around 0.9 and 0.7. The study results clearly predicted future WE demand of Addis Ababa city and have been put their quantified supply suggestion.

INFORMATION SUPPORT OF MODELING OF GRAVITY FUNCTION OF EMPLOYEES OF CITY SERVICE ENTERPRISES

The article is devoted to the establishment of information support to determine the patterns of changing the function of gravitation of employees of the urban-service enterprises. It has been established that the development of urban transport systems is impossible without the use of information technology to predict the parameters of the formation and absorption of passenger traffic. The design of urban transport systems cannot be achieved without assessing the impact of traffic improvement measures on changes in traffic and passenger flows. The main parameter by which it is possible to predict the choice of places of gravity by the inhabitants of cities is the function of gravitation between different areas of the city. The formalized functions of the gravitation of urban dwellers are not differentiated by the social composition of the population of cities. In addition, they use only travel time between areas of the city as an independent variable. The article proposes the formalization of the gravitation function of employees of the urban service enterprises using the parameters of the urban transport system, areas of departure and arrival, as well as the cost of movement. A special questionnaire has been developed to obtain the original information. A natural survey was carried out using it. As a result of the processing of survey data using correlation and regression analysis methods, the degree of influence of the studied factors on the value of the gravitation function of employees of urban service enterprises was revealed. Analysis of the correlation values obtained showed that the most significant impact on the value of the gravitation function of employees of urban services is the ratio of the cost of movement between districts and average wages in the city. The least impact is the distance from the area of residence to the place of application of work, the ratio of the cost of one square meter of housing in the area of residence and the average salary in the city, the ratio of the cost of one square meter of housing in the area of employment application and the average salary in the city. However, the compatible influence of all factors can change the level of influence of each factor and its combinations. In addition, it is advisable to take into account the technical and operational performance of urban passenger transport routes and individual transport routes.

The Effect of Cultural City on Regional Activation through the Consumer Reactions of Urban Service

Many countries have adopted culture policies such as the European Capital of Culture program to revitalize cities. Culture brings economic benefit to a city through creative industries as well as vitalizes cities by allowing excellent workforce to stay in the city. In order to achieve urban growth through culture, appropriate urban policies or services should be implemented. In addition, citizens should recognize the positive brand value of cities as a result of such policies. In this study, we considered the cultural city as one of city branding and studied how the cultural cities’ characteristics, urban services, and the city’s brand value had the effect on regional activation. Online survey was conducted from 18 September to 18 October 2019 with residents residing in Xi’an, China. In total, 345 valid questionnaires were received and analyzed. As a result of this study, the characteristics of the cultural city had positive effects on urban brand value and regional activation. Urban services had positive effects on cultural city characteristics, city brand value, and regional activation. City brand value had a positive effect on regional activation. This study contributes to the study of the cultural city and the field of public service, city brand, culture, and arts. City planners and leaders will be able to use the results of this study to establish city branding and urban revitalization policies through culture.

Does citizen coproduction lead to better urban services in smart cities projects? An empirical study on e-participation in a mobile big data platform

With contemporary development of digital technology and smart cities initiatives, citizen co-production has created a new government-citizen interface. However, it remains inconclusive whether such citizen-government collaboration has achieved the fundamental goal of improving service quality for citizens. In this research, we tested the relationship between e-participation as a form of co-production and service performance, using multiple large longitudinal datasets from a smart city mobile platform. The results of the analysis show that citizen e-participation, in providing service feedback, is positively associated with the clearance rate of urban service requests in subdistrict service units, after controlling for various factors. We also found that the effect size of e-participation on service performance varies between different types of city services. E-participation has a stronger relative influence on complex problems that may involve multiple agencies, than with simple routine services.