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• Awareness and training are essential to promote CDW management on a local scale. • The existence of local controlled sites has positive results for CDW management. • Supervision onsite improves compliance with good practices and legal procedures. • Procedural control has to be implemented to help other strategies succeed. • Circularity in the construction sector is stronger with local scale contributions. Achieving a broad analysis of construction and demolition waste (CDW) management without considering local scale dynamics, and its detailed characteristics, is a constraint that has made it challenging to optimally engage in an integrated assessment of the circular economy principles in the construction sector. In this sense, this research demonstrates that investing in local strategies is important, involving municipalities and micro and small construction companies. Firstly, the results reveal the importance of having controlled sites, under local responsibility, for the preliminary storage of CDW, creating in waste producers the habit of separating waste onsite, reducing costs and limitations for municipalities. Secondly, frequent supervision actions at construction sites are also important at this scale, as they facilitate progress in terms of encouraging compliance with mandatory legal procedures and good practices for CDW management. But it is easier to improve practice through direct onsite procedures than it is with bureaucratic legal requirements alone. Thirdly, procedural control, implemented by municipal technicians in conjunction with other strategies, also helps to promote CDW management, this being associated with processes of public and private construction works subjected to license or prior control, in opposition to what has been accomplished so far. But the research also demonstrated that regular awareness, training, and supervision actions might increase the likelihood of improvements in behaviour on the local scale, in the sense that stakeholders acquire new habits, which, over time, might lead to better results locally and, as a consequence, influence other scales of intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural governance increasingly involves a broad range of political agents – but whom do rural dwellers consider responsible for creating and maintaining local opportunity structures? Focusing on the issue of places to socialise, our paper investigates resident-municipality relations in peripheralised rural regions of Czechia and eastern Germany. We draw from problem-centred resident interviews using an actor-centred, multimodal concept of responsibility. Analysing residents' ideals of active citizenship, mutuality, and municipal care, we find that despite the considerable differences in the ways rural dwellers conceptualise the relationship between the municipality and its residents, the provision of local opportunities to socialise represents a realm in which they perceive the local state as both powerful and responsible for taking action. We conclude that a multimodal understanding of responsibility can provide insights into the normative conditions on which local attributions of responsibility are based. We further argue that research on rural facilities should take into account the symbolic and political meaning that third places have for rural residents. • Rural studies can benefit from multimodal conceptualisations of responsibility. • Experiences of political agency crystallise around mundane places to socialise. • The municipal level is key for rural residents' experience of rural governance. • A perceived lack of places to socialise can foster distrust in the local state. • Resident engagement does not equal identification with active rural citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Policymakers need electoral consensus to achieve sustainable structural transformation. • Structural change sustainability might be threatened by anti-system party consensus. • We analyze the local spending-electoral consensus nexus at municipal level in Italy. • We find that increasing local public spending reduces anti-system party consensus. • Heterogenous effects arise at different geographical areas and spending categories. This paper explores electoral consensus regarding local public spending as a way for policymakers, particularly in western democracies, to secure long-term electoral support to govern the sustainability of structural change. Public spending is perceived by local electoral constituencies as immediately affecting people's lives and thus strongly influences individual voting behaviour. Focusing on the case of Italy, this paper explores the electoral consensus–public spending nexus on the municipal level. The results show that, on average, an increase in local public spending is associated with a reduction in electoral consensus towards anti-system parties, whereas an increase in local public spending does not yield a significant raise in electoral consensus for pro-system parties. We find nevertheless heterogeneous effects across different geographical areas and spending categories for both anti-system and pro-system party consensus. The results yield insights for scholarly debate and implications for policymaking to garner the electoral consensus needed for sustainable structural change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has significantly impacted various sectors, including public governance at the local level. However, there exists a limited understanding of the overarching narrative surrounding the adoption of AI in local governments and its future. Therefore, this study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the evolution, current state-of-the-art, and emerging trends in the adoption of AI in local government. A comprehensive scientometric analysis was conducted on a dataset comprising 7112 relevant literature records retrieved from the Scopus database in October 2023, spanning over the last five decades. The study findings revealed the following key insights: (a) exponential technological advancements over the last decades ushered in an era of AI adoption by local governments; (b) the primary purposes of AI adoption in local governments include decision support, automation, prediction, and service delivery; (c) the main areas of AI adoption in local governments encompass planning, analytics, security, surveillance, energy, and modelling; and (d) under-researched but critical research areas include ethics of and public participation in AI adoption in local governments. This study informs research, policy, and practice by offering a comprehensive understanding of the literature on AI applications in local governments, providing valuable insights for stakeholders and decision-makers. • Maps the landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in local government (LG) • Advancements in the last decades brought the Blooming Era of AI adoption in LG • Main AI adoption purposes: decision support, automation, prediction, service delivery • Main AI adoption areas: planning, analytics, security, surveillance, energy, modelling • Under-researched but critical areas: responsibility and ethics of AI adoption in LG [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of the study, the purpose and practical input of which was the analysis and evaluation of municipal governments, including the identification of municipalities best developed in socio-economic terms in conditions of data uncertainty. To this end, factors with a significant impact on the concept of territorial development were identified. For the purpose of the analysis, the variables were adopted that were related to various spheres of municipal development, including the social, economic, infrastructural, environmental and administrative ones. The study used such methods and exploration techniques as: desk research analysis, critical analysis of the literature on the subject, methods of economic analysis and methods of multidimensional comparative analysis. The uncertainty of data was caused, among other things, by the fact that the study did not take into account the effect of barriers hampering development processes and focused exclusively on variables whose highest values indicated the most effective use of development stimulating factors. Moreover, the diversification of the municipalities' endogenous potential was not included in the considerations. The above reasons seem to confirm the study results that found two municipalities: Kołobrzeg and Świnoujście to be the best developed in socio-economic terms. In the period under analysis the values of the diagnostic variables of both municipalities were the most similar to the benchmark municipality. The explanation for the results can be found, among others, in the high endogenic potential of both municipalities, especially in comparison with other coastal municipalities of the West Pomeranian Voivodship. The study contributes to further in-depth research on the best method of selecting variables for analyzing the development of municipalities. Future research in this field should be focused on identifying the best method of selecting diagnostic features where some features are uncertain or imprecise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stability of municipal revenues is crucial for long-term socio-economic planning at the city level. This paper presents the impact of changes in legal regulations mandating the transformation of perpetual usufruct into ownership on preferential terms. Using micro-level information on transactions and plots handed over in perpetual usufruct for single-family housing, we determined potential losses in the City of Poznan caused by the new regulations. The research uses mass appraisal models to assess the fees related to the land value of properties affected by the legal transformation, scenario analysis, and Monte-Carlo simulation to evaluate the consequences of the change in the regulation in the long run. The simulation results indicate that the municipalities are deprived of relatively stable revenues after the reform. In Poznan, we assess that the net present value of revenue losses ranged from −327.3 mln PLN to −419.6 mln PLN (74.6 % to 92.9 % reduction of the baseline revenues, respectively). Incorporating provisions allowing the perpetual usufruct of developed land to be converted to housing is less financially beneficial for municipalities than for perpetual usufruct holders. Additionally, it significantly manages municipal strategic control of local development within the city and reduces municipal land resources. The research attempts to narrow the gap in knowledge about the role of land leases in municipal revenues. • The regulations introduced by the Law on Perpetual Usufruct Transformation of 2018 are financially disadvantageous for municipalities. • In the long run, the decrease in revenues will most likely cause a sub-optimal expenditure reduction and, to some extent, will lower the quality of local public utility services. • Reducing municipal land resources significantly limits local development and the scope of public utility services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies on the residential attractiveness of a geographical area or the housing preferences of a local community have focused mainly on the territory of a given unit (municipality/town). This paper presents the results of research whose aim and practical contribution was to assess the residential attractiveness of all municipalities in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship and to identify factors which have a crucial impact on this concept. For the sake of the analysis a number of variables were adopted relating to various spheres of the problem in question: social, economic, infrastructural, environmental and administrative. The study applied one of the methods of multidimensional comparative analysis - the VMCM (Vector Measure Construction Method). The results obtained can be helpful to local decision makers as recommendations for policies designed to strengthen their municipalities' internal capacity and to initiate positive demographic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As citizen report systems are introduced in municipalities worldwide, research on extracting knowledge useful for resolving local issues from accumulated citizen report data is being actively promoted. However, to utilize this knowledge in practice, clarifying the characteristics of the participating reporters and the bias caused by them is necessary. This study focuses on repeat reporters who play an important role and extracts knowledge regarding their behavioral characteristics from citizen report data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of globalization, the economy has expanded, leading to an increase in population and the growth of the city dramatically. The municipalities as local administrators for the being and the quality of life of people in the city. However, the activities in the city such as fuel consumption of housing and transportation, electricity use, waste management like wastewater and waste produce both direct and indirect greenhouse gases, increasing many impacts of climate change. The concept of "low carbon city" has been applied to local government in Thailand. This research aims to evaluate city's greenhouse gas emissions in a case study of Dan Sai municipality based on the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories guideline (GPC), divided into three scopes are scope 1, direct greenhouse gas emissions, scope 2, indirect greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity use and scope 3, other indirect greenhouse gas emissions. According to the study of the city's greenhouse gas emissions in year 2016, was found that Dan Sai municipality had a greenhouse gas emission of 22,925.66 tCO 2 eq, equivalent to 5.95 tCO 2 eq/person/year of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions per capita, The amount of greenhouse gas emissions per household is 11.84 tCO 2 eq/household/year and the amount of greenhouse gas emissions per area is 2,999.82 tCO 2 eq/square kilometer/year. And from the assessing results of the alternative options to reduce greenhouse gases by analyzing the final cost of the three options, that are increasing the number of solar rooftops, increasing the use of household LED bulbs and refining waste management using RDF technology, found that the final cost was −175.48, 87.53 and −61.72 Baht/kgCO 2 eq, respectively. This project model is a sustainable city developed into a low carbon city in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Wildfires, a key socio-environmental challenge in Mediterranean regions, are influenced by anthropogenic factors shaping land-use and socioeconomic spatial structures. By assuming that the dominant socioeconomic structure of local districts exerts a variable impact on wildfire spatial regimes, the present study investigates 174 indicators on a municipal scale in Italy, identifying a multidimensional relationship between wildfire characteristics and socioeconomic contexts. An exploratory statistical approach was adopted to identify linear and non-linear relationships among variables assessing socioeconomic contexts and wildfire patterns. Empirical results demonstrate that characteristic wildfire attributes (frequency, intensity and severity) are systematically higher in socioeconomic contexts characterized by rural poverty, unemployment and deregulated urban expansion, especially in southern Italy. A higher fire frequency was typically observed in (i) peri-urban districts with a dynamic socio-demographic profile and (ii) in rural districts with intensive cropping systems. Joint information on socioeconomic structure/dynamics and environmental change, is crucial for a better understanding of local-scale spatial patterns of wildfires in the Mediterranean region. Integrated socio-environmental information provides a better understanding of the local communities' role in the management of wildfire-prone land, contributing to implement more effective strategies aimed at minimizing wildfire impact on land resources. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Wildfire regime in Italy was significantly influenced by socioeconomic conditions. • Multivariate analysis is a key tool to characterize wildfire spatial distribution. • Relations between socioeconomic variables and wildfires are important for fire management • Peri-urban areas are exposed to frequent, small-size wildfires. • Rural areas need specific wildfire protection plans [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study investigates how Swedish municipalities work to reduce the climate change impact of building construction. It focuses on current practices related to promoting the use of sustainable construction materials and on barriers to environmental requirements in construction, in particular environmental performance requirements based on LCA procedures. Municipalities were surveyed about the existence of municipal policies dealing with environmental issues in construction, the knowledge level about these issues, and the measures and requirements used to promote materials with low climate change impact. The survey was followed by semi-structured interviews about current practices and barriers to environmental requirements in construction. Results show that large municipalities are more likely to have dedicated policies and implement more measures than their smaller counterparts. However, willingness to implement future measures and knowledge of sustainable construction do not vary significantly with municipality population. Efforts are often limited to procurement, municipal construction projects and discussions with stakeholders. When requirements are set, they are almost always based on prescribing a technical solution (e.g. use of timber) rather than assessing environmental performance (e.g. calculating greenhouse gases emissions with a LCA tool). Measures that municipalities can take as public authorities are restricted by the law, which remains ambiguous as to the legality of environmental performance requirements. Legal issues, limited knowledge and resources appear to be the main barriers to environmental performance requirements in construction. A strategy is proposed to overcome these issues. After setting appropriate targets and securing resources, the municipality should establish dialogue with developers and constructors. It should then require them to provide inventory data for new construction projects. The municipality should make sure appropriate guidance and standardised methods are available. Information requirements should be strengthened over time, and practitioners should progressively become familiar with data collection and LCA methods. When data and knowledge gaps are filled, the municipality can set environmental performance requirements for new buildings. Highlights • A survey reviews how municipalities reduce the climate impact of construction. • Interviews investigate barriers to environmental performance requirements. • Large municipalities have more resources to mobilize but still face barriers. • Barriers relate to knowledge, data, resources, the law, and national guidance. • A suggested strategy is to improve dialogue and use information requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desertification risk affects Mediterranean ecosystems as a result of the mutual interplay between natural and human factors. The peculiar socioeconomic profile of vulnerable areas (mainly based on rural poverty, job shortage and the consequent unemployment, subsidence agriculture and ecological fragility of land) suggests that desertification risk may negatively impact the sustainable development of local communities, leading to an irreversible depletion of soil resources. However, although sustainable development and desertification risk remain two hegemonic concepts in both ecological and economic disciplines, their intimate relationship has been occasionally investigated. The present study contributes to fill this knowledge gap delineating a multi-step procedure that analyses, at the municipal scale, the multivariate relationship among 160 indicators of sustainable development and desertification risk in Italy. Based on a Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the procedure performed a spectral decomposition of 18 dimensions of sustainable development (populated with 156 indicators) into 53 latent components taken as predictors of four indicators of desertification risk in a partial least square regression. Results document three sequential 'early desertification spirals', the first one referring to agricultural intensification (1960–1990), the second one dependent on urbanization-driven human pressure (1990–2000), and the third one reflecting wealth accumulation and societal changes toward less sustainable lifestyles and consumption patterns. This latent evolution may confirm the increasing importance of 'immaterial' forces such as globalization, societal transformations, and other 'soft' factors of change, when lowering environmental quality, in spite of more traditional drivers of ecosystem degradation, such as agricultural intensification and economic growth, typical of a capitalistic 'material' world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the research of key stakeholders of village development and their standpoints for the implementation of smart projects which are bearers of new trends in village development. Smart projects such as in the field of environment, power engineering, as well as the social sphere are current challenges for the municipalities to avoid any further deepening of the difference in technological and competitive lag behind city regions. The object of the research was to find out how Smart Village ideas and projects are taken up by the local development stakeholders, in which fields the smart solutions are regarded as most desirable for the implementation, and what the barriers which occur in pursuing these projects are. To this end, the project methodology applied the stakeholder analysis through questionnaires submitted to key stakeholders for the development of the village municipalities, which included selected village mayors and experts from the ministries and regional governments, including representatives of local action groups that associate with the municipalities in the village areas. The research concluded that the smart projects pursued are most often associated with the forming of resilient communities and environments. Furthermore, the results pointed out that the mayors are more cautious about the implementation of smart projects than the experts. The mayors consider them more critically, they lack financial resources for their implementation, and they are unsure of their standpoints on smart projects, also due to poor information. The mayors would welcome improved institutional and counselling support from the state and regions facilitating the decision making process in the field of selecting suitable smart solutions and contributing to more intense use of smart solutions in the development of village municipalities. • Mayors from rural areas consider smart village projects to be beneficial for the development of rural communities. • Smart projects and solutions are expected to create socially, economically and environmentally favourable conditions and improve the well-being of local residents. • Expert and independent support is needed for the decision-making process as well as selecting and implementing smart projects. • A barrier to the implementation of smart projects is often the undeveloped horizontal and vertical cooperation between actors for solutions with a larger territorial impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is increasingly becoming a priority issue in tourism development in the modern world. The basic goal is to educate local communities in the principles of this new approach. The purpose of the study was to diagnose programs produced by local governments in the area of sustainable tourism development, identify problem areas, and propose solutions. The study was based on surveys in paper form. Most local governments in Poland (62%) state that sustainable development is considered in their planning and implementation of tourism-related programs. More than three out of four local government officials state that the opinions of local residents are also considered in the process. At the same time, more than 60% of survey participants state that their local municipality does not facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experiences in the area of sustainable development via the organization of relevant conferences, meetings, and workshops. In addition, local government officials note the existence of conflicts associated with collaboration in the tourism sector, mostly manifested by differences of opinion in terms of environmental protection versus tourism development. However, research has shown that the number of conflicts is smaller when the quality (i.e. higher mark) of the collaboration is higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing the concept of biopolitics , this study explores noise and policy inaction as normalizing technologies of the body and as market discourse through the commercialization of a small village. Noise in Alaçatı Village, which has been increasing since 2015, is analyzed here in terms of its constitutive processes, which include mechanisms of power and resistance. This approach shows how the normalizing technologies of the body, in conjunction with the inaction and contingency policies of biopower, result in the emergence of new power mechanisms with privatized and individualized modes of action. This study employed a qualitative method involving two months of participant observation and 45 qualitative interviews conducted in 2016 and 2017. The outcomes of policy inaction are as follows: (1) excessive noise is accepted and resistants become silent, (2) connections between noise supporters and resistants are lost, (3) responsibility for overcoming noise is individualized, and (4) de-territorialization and re-territorialization occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Municipalities in clusters of malaria are related to minimum multiyear rainfall. • Forest coverage is related to the possibility of a municipality belonging to a malaria cluster. • Aqueduct coverage reduces the chances of belonging to clusters to malaria. This study identifies the environmental and socio-economic determinants of clusters of high malaria incidence in Colombia during the period of 2008–2019. The malaria cases were obtained from the National System of Surveillance in Public Health, with 798,897 cases reported in the 986 Colombian municipalities evaluated during the study period. Spatial autocorrelation of incidence was examined with global and local indices. Clusters were identified in the Amazon, Pacific, and Uraba-Bajo Cauca-Alto Sinú regions. The factors associated with a municipality belonging to a high-incidence cluster were identified using a logistic regression model with mixed effects and showed a positive association for the variables (forest coverage and minimum multi-year average rainfall). An inverse relationship was observed for aqueduct coverage and the odds of belonging to a cluster. A 1% increase in forest coverage was associated with a 4.2% increase in the odds of belonging to a malaria cluster. The association with minimum multi-year average rainfall was positive (OR = 1.0011; 95% CI 1.0005−1.0027). A 1% increase in aqueduct coverage was associated with a 4.3% decrease in the odds of belonging to malaria cluster. The identification of malaria cluster determinants in Colombia could help guide surveillance and disease control policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capturing the status, trends, and relationships in biodiversity and urbanization is a multi-dimensional challenge for scientists and policy-makers alike. An indicator, the City Biodiversity Index (CBI), was developed as a self-assessment tool to measure trends in urban contexts in three spheres: biodiversity, ecosystems, and governance. Its primary focus is “green,” but it further encompasses social and economic aspects to measure the sustainability of a city. The indicators can be used to visualize trends and translate scientific assessments into policy. Since 2008, 25 cities voluntarily applied the CBI. In Asia, Japan applied certain components of the CBI to 665 municipalities in 2016 in one of the first large-scale applications at national level. Regarding data visualization methods, the city of Helsinki, for example, has a website to visualize environmental information on biodiversity. The aim of this paper is to identify the practical and scientific challenges in conservation of biodiversity in medium to small cities based on a questionnaire survey. The research site is Ishikawa prefecture, which comprises municipalities in the target sizes. The survey shows that certain terms were difficult to understand conceptually, particularly “ecosystem services.” The lack of monitoring and available datasets posed a number of difficulties for applying the index to the majority of cities. A method to evaluate biodiversity and ecosystem services has not yet been established. These technical difficulties are complicated with administrative and financial issues as well as human resources, issues shared by the municipalities. Based on our survey results, recommended activities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy planning in municipalities in some EU countries was introduced some two to three decades ago. In 2008 a wide European initiative – Covenant of Mayors – for local governments was launched to initiate their commitment towards energy and climate targets. Municipalities are considered among the main stakeholders to foster and implement energy saving and climate measures through their local Sustainability Energy Action Plan (SEAP). More than 6000 municipalities have developed and approved their SEAPs, however only part of them are successfully implemented. The article proposes and describes integrated approach to motivate municipalities to engage and apply a systematic approach towards energy reduction. Through implementation and continuous improvement of energy management systems in public buildings and infrastructure, municipalities are able to tackle further challenges across different fields of interest in the whole territory of the municipality. Article provides the most important motivators, challenges and advantages of the approach based on the assessment of 41 municipalities around Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we suggest a way how to make the management of city more efficient. Forecasting the financial situation of the organization is an important part of the company practice. The economy of cities and municipalities works on the same principle however relations balance-sheet data are not so explicit. Minimal attention is attributed to many correlations as the sense of forecasting balance-sheet data of municipalities is not considered to be an interesting part of the financial-economic analysis. The methodology of forecasting of the future financial state using our suggested credit score expressed through trading income per habitant absents. Credit score is one of ways how to determine the total financial situation of the organization. The goal of the paper is to propose methodology for taking into account relations and correlations of the basic financial and economic data in order to determine financial condition and solvency of municipalities. The determination of this credit score would be useful for citizens of the city, the government of the city as well as for banking institutions. The use of these relations would be a simple manual how to get the situation about financial economy of the cities. Finally, the implementation and use of these characteristics could be useful in making the city management more efficient. By doing this, municipalities and cities would have financial resources, either from surplus or provided low bank credits, to finance important areas such as public transport and infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following current debates on the study of the quality of local government, this article focuses on the effects of settlement unit size and organizational type on candidacy in local elections within the Czech Republic. Municipal size and institutional design are traditionally seen as important factors influencing political participation at the local level. However, citizens in differently defined settlement units included in a municipality are disadvantaged differently by these factors and thus, de-motivated to participate in politics. The unit of analysis within the article is a settlement unit within a municipality. The article uses Poisson regression to estimate the effect of the absolute and relative size of the settlement unit and different organizational types of settlement unit on the relative number of candidates in the unit. The analysis is based on data from 6,124 Czech municipalities over three sets of elections. The results of the analysis show that increasing absolute size and decreasing relative size of settlement unit have negative effects on the number of candidates in units. Also the institutionally disadvantaged units (defined by the location of the municipal office within the settlement unit) produce smaller number of candidates. The results show the importance of structural factors on the traditionally neglected type of political participation (candidacy) within this field. This allows the formulation of recommendations for local government reforms, not only in the Czech Republic, but also for amalgamated municipal systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction : The high percentage of fatalities in pedestrian-involved crashes is a critical social problem. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors influencing injury severity in pedestrian crashes by examining the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the regions where crashes occurred. Method : To understand the correlation between the unobserved characteristics of pedestrian crashes in a defined region, we apply a hierarchical ordered model, in which we set crash characteristics as lower-level variables and municipality characteristics as upper-level. Pedestrian crash data were collected and analyzed for a three-year period from 2011 to 2013. The estimation results show the statistically significant factors that increase injury severity of pedestrian crashes. Results : At the crash level, the factors associated with increased severity of pedestrian injury include intoxicated drivers, road-crossing pedestrians, elderly pedestrians, heavy vehicles, wide roads, darkness, and fog. At the municipality level, municipalities with low population density, lower level of financial independence, fewer doctors, and a higher percentage of elderly residents experience more severe pedestrian crashes. Municipalities ranked as having the top 10% pedestrian fatality rate (fatalities per 100,000 residents) have rates 7.4 times higher than municipalities with the lowest 10% rate of fatalities. Their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics also have significant differences. The proposed model accounts for a 7% unexplained variation in injury severity outcomes between the municipalities where crashes occurred. Conclusion : To enhance the safety of vulnerable pedestrians, considerable investments of time and effort in pedestrian safety facilities and zones should be made. More certain and severe punishments should be also given for the traffic violations that increase injury severity of pedestrian crashes. Furthermore, central and local governments should play a cooperative role to reduce pedestrian fatalities. Practical applications : Based on our study results, we suggest policy directions to enhance pedestrian safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A framework to include a Life Cycle Assessment in the significance evaluation of the environmental aspects of an Environmental Management System has been studied for some industrial sectors, but there is a literature gap at the territorial level, where the indirect impact assessment is crucial. To overcome this criticality, our research proposes the Life Cycle Assessment as a framework to assess environmental aspects of public administration within an Environmental Management System applied at the territorial level. This research is structured in two parts: the design of a new methodological framework and the pilot application for an Italian municipality. The methodological framework designed supports Initial Environmental Analysis at the territorial level thanks to the results derived from the impact assessment phase. The pilot application in an Italian municipality EMAS registered demonstrates the applicability of the framework and its effectiveness in evaluating the environmental impact assessment for direct and indirect aspects. Through the discussion of the results, we underline the growing knowledge derived by this research in terms of the reproducibility and consistency of the criteria to define the significance of the direct and indirect environmental aspects for a local public administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sprawl, as a particular characterisation of spatial extension of urbanised areas, is a contested issue. In this paper we provide an analysis of the major socio-economic determinants of changes in those urban patterns considered as sprawl in Switzerland. Our analysis covers the years 1980–2010, and has been conducted for all of the 2495 Swiss municipalities. The spatially explicit model gives evidence of the importance of spillover effects. Employing regression modelling of different urban sprawl metrics that capture urban development patterns we show that the socio-economic explanatory variables yield different results in explaining those metrics and thus give insights in the highly complex matter that is sprawl. These metrics which include the extent of built-up areas, dispersion of settlements and utilisation density provide a composite metric for urban sprawl. Our results show that the densification of built-up areas gains increasing influence in shaping urban patterns and that, in Switzerland, accessibility is a key determinant of sprawl. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic plants developed on rural land are becoming a common infrastructure in the Mediterranean region and may contribute, at least indirectly, to various forms of environmental degradation including landscape deterioration, land take, soil degradation and loss in traditional cropland and biodiversity. Our study illustrates a procedure estimating (i) the extension of ground-mounted photovoltaic fields at the municipal scale in Italy and (ii) inferring the socioeconomic profile of the Italian municipalities experiencing different expansion rates of ground-mounted photovoltaic fields over the last years (2007-2014). The procedure was based on diachronic information derived from official data sources integrated into a geographical decision support system. Our results indicate that the surface area of ground-mounted photovoltaic fields into rural land grew continuously in Italy between 2007 and 2014 with positive and increasing growth rates observed during 2007-2011 and positive but slightly decreasing growth rates over 2012-2014, as a result of market saturation and policies containing the diffusion of solar plants on greenfields. We found important differences in the density of ground-mounted solar plants between northern and southern Italian municipalities. We identified accessible rural municipalities in southern Italy with intermediate population density and large availability of non-urban land as the most exposed to the diffusion of solar plants on greenfields in the last decade. Our approach is a promising tool to estimate changes in the use of land driven by the expansion of photovoltaic fields into rural land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that influence municipalities׳ participation in new hydropower development in Norway. Since Norway is pursuing the ways of realizing the political objectives related to the promotion of renewable energy, it is relevant to reconsider planning new hydropower developments. Due to political priorities there has been a boom in small scale hydropower development but very limited development has taken place in large scale hydropower during the last 10 years. Norway has a huge potential for small hydropower plants along with renovation and expansion of existing hydro plants. Municipalities in Norway are involved in hydropower generation in different ways. Municipalities have unique knowledge about the local environment and they communicate both with local communities, NGOs and energy companies regarding both positive and possible negative impacts of hydropower development. Thus it is important to investigate the municipal councils׳ attitude and participative behavior in increasing new hydropower plants in their regions. It is also important to determine the challenges that municipalities are experiencing in that regard. In order to identify factors influencing municipality׳s participative behavior in new hydropower development the motivation–opportunity–ability (MOA) framework was used. Several hypotheses were proposed. To test the hypothesized relationships, a survey was conducted and data were collected from municipalities across Norway. The findings suggest that the extent to which municipalities participate in the new hydropower development process depend on motivation, opportunity, and ability to participate. The role of pre-existing beliefs and attitudes were not found to have an influential role in participation, however opportunity proved to be a key determinant. Though municipalities have positive attitude towards new development but the benefit they receive and their opportunity to participate during the process are found to be the important determinants in increasing their participative behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychosocial risks are widely recognized as a major challenge at work, a challenge that most organizations find difficult to manage in practice. The OHSAS 18001 standard provides a framework for the management of occupational health and safety risks, including psychosocial risks. However, such occupational health and safety management (OHSM) systems tend to have difficulties in adequately addressing psychosocial risks at work. A crucial element in the OHSM system is internal audits. We have investigated how two Danish municipalities have transformed the general audit guidelines into internal audit practices capable of targeting the psychosocial risks. The results show that the municipalities experienced difficulties in transforming the general audit guidelines into practical models, and we found that this led to significant variations in audit practices. The explanation for these difficulties can be found both in the nature of the psychosocial risks and in implementation constraints. Compared to traditional safety audits, auditing psychosocial risks appears to require different methods and auditor competencies, a factor that the OHSAS 18001 standard does not explicitly take into account. On the basis of our study, we reach two major conclusions: first, that the standard provides little help in auditing the management of psychosocial risks in relation to OHSM systems; and second, that the full potential for management of psychosocial risks cannot be achieved without developing additional methods and auditor competencies for audits of psychosocial risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An assessment of residential CO 2 emissions is typically performed through the intensity method, in which total energy consumption is estimated by multiplying floor space by intensity value. Although spatially detailed intensity data is required for an accurate estimation, the finer spatial resolution will result in a less stable estimated value due to the small sample size; hence, existing studies in Japan created intensity data at a regional or prefectural level. The objective of this study is to create municipality level intensity data via a statistical approach, using the household level micro data from the National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure, of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan, by focusing on electricity. First, this study builds several (spatial) statistical models, where per household electricity expenditure is regressed on housing types (two categories), household types (seven categories), and other household specific variables. Second, by substituting averaged municipality level explanatory variables from official statistics into the model, it estimates municipality level intensity data. The obtained results suggest that conventional intensity data in Japan, created by the simple average of samples in each unit (prefecture), may suffer from an upward bias, suggesting a danger of overestimation of residential CO 2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of an empirical study aimed at evaluating the cost efficiency of 108 Italian major municipalities, and investigating to what extent the municipality efficiency is also associated to the effectiveness of public expenditure, and consequently to quality of services offered to citizens. The study implements Data Envelopment Analysis to calculate the efficiency score and understand if it is influenced by scale economies and determine the type of these economies. For this purpose, every municipality was modeled as a production function using 6 cost item inputs and 2 outputs. Finally, the study implemented a truncated regression equation using the bootstrapped efficiency estimate as the dependent variable, and a selection of indicators measuring the quality of public services offered in the context as the independent variables. Results reveal that there exist important scale inefficiencies in a number of municipalities, but unexpectedly a great amount of inefficiencies are caused by decreasing returns to scale. Additionally, the study suggests that a trade-off between expenditure efficiency and effectiveness, i.e. the quality of public service, seems to exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been unclear whether the prevalence of disability is higher in an area affected by natural disaster than in other areas even if more than one year has passed since the disaster. The aim of this ecological study was to examine whether the rate of increase in disability prevalence among the older population was higher in disaster-stricken areas during the 3 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) and tsunami. This analysis used public Long-term Care Insurance (LTCI) data covering 1570 municipalities. “Disaster areas” were considered to be the three prefectures most affected by the earthquake and tsunami: Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima. The outcome measure was the number of aged people (≥65 years) with LTCI disability certification. Rates of change in disability prevalence from January 2011 to January 2014 were used as the primary outcome variable, and compared by analysis of covariance between “coastal disaster areas”, “inland disaster areas” and “non-disaster areas”. The mean rate of increase in disability prevalence in coastal (14.7%) and inland (10.0%) disaster areas was higher than in non-disaster areas (6.2%) ( P < 0.001). During the 3 years after the earthquake, the increase of disability prevalence from before the GEJE continued to be higher in the disaster-stricken areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses strategic planning of different municipalities and common plans of the association of municipalities within the micro-regions of South Bohemia in Czech Republic, which were posted on their websites. Based on a content analysis of these documents and their comparison recommendations were suggested to improve the strategic plan, identify gaps and to use strategic tools, e.g. Balanced Scorecard, benchmarking, project and process management. Absolute majority of the analysed strategic plan does not meet the criteria of complexity and thus cannot use this important tool of strategic management to effectively contribute to the future development of the municipalities or micro-regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we study the motives behind sustainability strategy implementation and how the performance measurement system (PMS) is modified during different development stages in a municipal organization. We use a case study approach and focus on one of the greenest municipalities in Europe, Växjö municipality in Sweden. With empirical results supporting the existence of several phases during the implementation process, our research offers two important contributions. First, it provides additional insight in the set of motives for the use of PMS during different development phases. Main stakeholders, politicians and managers of municipal departments and municipality owned companies, have revealed several "layers" of motives, which have shaped the development of the PMS. Second, the research also show that the PMS has a noticeable symbolic importance in promoting and communicating the green strategy to citizens and businesses in the region. [Display omitted] • Scandal triggered the work on sustainability strategy in "the greenest city in Europe". • Performance measurement system can be used to support sustainability strategy. • There are different " layers" of motives for the development of the performance measurement system. • Växjö Municipality and their work on sustainability issues could be a reference for other municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public alerting is a major challenge in a world where risks and communication modes are constantly evolving. Since a few years, new massive alerting tools geolocating the population in real time (Cell Broadcast or Location-Based SMS) have been deployed at national level in several countries. However, this evolution does not always reach with local needs. Decision-makers can use a wide multiplicity of tools and this can induce vulnerability differences from one territory to another. To help decision makers in their choice of equipment, this study proposes a Spatial Decision Support System and applied it in 40 various French municipalities in order to observe how 13 alerting tools are adapted (or not) to the characteristics of the municipalities. Early findings highlighted a great diversity of adapted tools between municipalities and within municipalities, in different alert zones. Alerting tool equipment must be considered at an infra-municipal scale to fully consider the diversity of alert zones. The greater the number of inhabitants, the more diverse the alerting tools needed. Also, few tools are suitable for municipalities with a low population and poor access to telecommunication networks. Finally, as tools geolocating individuals are suitable for highly populated municipalities, such national equipment shall not be used on small alert zones involving few individuals. • Facing disasters, characteristics of territories influence the alerting tools required. • A spatial decision support system is applied to see how 13 alerting tools fit in 40 French municipalities. • The greater the number of inhabitants, the more diverse the alerting tools needed. • National LBAS (Location-Based Alerting Systems) are poorly adapted to municipal scale. • Few tools are suitable for municipalities with a low population and poor access to telecommunication networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Växjö municipality sets specific energy related requirements beyond the Swedish building code (BBR) when selling land for the construction of new residential buildings. The requirement for Östra Lugnet residential area was that all buildings must be connected to the local district heating network and installation of heat pumps was prohibited in developer-built group/row houses. This paper (a) analyzed if the energy use of the buildings fulfilled the requirements of the BBR and that of Växjö municipality, and (b) compared the primary energy use and CO 2 emission from operation of the district heated buildings with hypothetical scenarios where only air-source or bedrock heat pumps were installed. Results showed that a significant proportion of the group/row houses did not fulfil the specific energy use requirements of the BBR and that of Växjö municipality. There were large variations between predicted and actual energy use. Using a marginal accounting approach, houses with district heating were found to have the lowest carbon emission. From this perspective it seems appropriate for Växjö municipality to set the requirement that new residential buildings in Östra Lugnet be connected to the local district heating network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims improving local public services practices, at least, for our national local communities’ administration. Such possibilities may arise by case study regarding delegated management of a public entity charged with central heating public service, turned in private company. Paper treats local public finance and reveals the risks of defection management and even fraud risk by periodical re-negotiating of significant contracts with related parties and internal controls deficiency. The moral value of case study is economics considerations over legal considerations prevalence by applying principle of correlating demands with resources, not upside-down. Romanian local public administration need develop good practices of public acquisition of delegated management contracts. It's about adequate evaluation frameworks combining in a competent and responsible manner quantitative and qualitative evaluations. Legal department should be more involved in monitoring law application. Also, personnel of internal controls system should be more involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When it comes to improving energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, municipalities are important actors. The Swedish Energy Agency initiated a program called Sustainable Municipalities to support strategic energy activities at the local level. Participating municipalities were mandated to develop local energy and climate strategies. This study gives a general overview of how the 60 participants in the Sustainable Municipalities program developed and used energy strategies. The paper focuses on analyses of whether energy plans or strategies are present, and if present, how the municipalities address the issues, what actors are involved, and whether follow-up of the strategies is pursued. The empirical data were collected using structured telephone interviews and documentation studies. The paper elucidates local energy strategies from a management perspective, discuss whether and how the composition of actors influences suggested goals and measures, and explore whether there were plans for implementation and follow-ups. The theoretical ambitions are to integrate theories on how to manage efficient strategic energy planning with theories on how to achieve successful participation of stakeholders. These theories are used to discuss weaknesses and strengths in existing municipal energy planning practices and potential improvements. The results from this paper show that only 75% of the municipalities adopted local energy strategies. In addition, it was revealed that the processes to develop the strategies generally included several municipal actors although other stakeholders were rarely represented. The strategies resulted in concrete measures; however, there were no clear correlations between included actors, suggested measures, and identified themes in the strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal was to find out whether much of the variation in mortality between the 430 Norwegian municipalities could be attributed to socio-demographic characteristics of the population − operating through individual- or aggregate-level mechanisms. Two-level discrete-time hazard models were estimated for women and men at age 60−89 in 2000−2008, using registers covering the entire population. Year, age and a municipality-level random term were included in the first step. When socio-demographic characteristics of the individual and others in the municipality were added, the variance of the random term was reduced by 73−80% almost exclusively because of aggregate-level effects. Policy implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil salinization is a relatively common form of soil degradation in Europe threatening coastal areas and fertile lowlands and altering the long-term interplay between natural and human factors at the local scale. While rural areas with degraded soils are often characterized by poverty, unemployment and subsidence agriculture, less information is available on the relationship between soil salinization and various socioeconomic profiles typically observed in Mediterranean Europe. Using a large set of territorial indicators made available at the municipal scale in Italy, the present study explores the spatial correlation between an index of vulnerability to soil salinization and six socioeconomic domains (population structure/dynamics and human settlements, labor market and human capital, economic specialization and competitiveness, quality of life, agriculture and rural development, landscape and environment). An exploratory data analysis was carried out to derive a socioeconomic profile of the municipalities with low and high vulnerability to soil salinization. Results indicate that the socioeconomic profile of vulnerable areas is characterized by specific rural development variables, income patterns and socio-demographic structure. Young population, density of bank deposits, crime intensity, high density of workers, and a land-use structure dominated by irrigated crop and discontinuous built-up areas with a lower per-worker crop surface are the indicators contributing the most to determine the profile of rural communities in areas vulnerable to soil salinization. An in-depth knowledge of the socioeconomic context and socio-environmental relationships on a local scale may contribute to design effective policies of soil conservation and sustainable land management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated coastal management (ICM) is the paradigm for sustainable coastal development in South Africa and has been, since 2008, entrenched in government decision-making by the National Environmental Management: Integrated Coastal Management Act, Act No. 24 of 2008 (ICM Act). The coast is a complex and dynamic space as a nexus of widely ranging and often conflicting socio-economic interests. ICM requires understanding and management of coastal systems at national and provincial policy-level but, more importantly, at the local government level. The ICM Act devolves some responsibility to municipalities, the smallest autonomous administrative management unit on the coast. However, this Act and the international literature are virtually silent on the most effective institutional arrangements to progress towards ICM within municipalities. This study is a “bottom-up” or examination of a number of internal institutional arrangements deemed appropriate to affect an increased degree of ICM within the City of Cape Town. This paper presents data and information that were collected during an institutional assessment of the coastal management competency in that city. Using a combination of qualitative methods, it was possible to assess three a priori scenarios of institutional arrangements for ICM in a large well-resourced municipality. The assessment resulted in a number of principles for the structuring of municipal institutions to increase the degree of ICM. The authors (from local government and the private, and research sector) contend that these principles are first applicable to metropolitan cities of South Africa but that it could also apply to local-level administrative units elsewhere. The data from the City of Cape Town indicate relatively low degrees of ICM, commensurately low degrees of political interest and constrained institutions, even within the buoyant and well-structured national ICM framework. Political interest; interpersonal and departmental conflicts; institutional idiosyncrasies, and overlapping operational mandates are not empirically measurable but are fundamentally rooted to the effectiveness of ICM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of China's urbanization and industrialization, the increasing emissions of industrial waste gas (IWG) have resulted in severe air pollution, which has posed a great threat to human health and sustainable development. In this study, a stepwise clustered industrial waste gas emission management model (SCEM) is developed to support the formulation of IWG-mitigation policies with consideration of sector-level production- and emission-oriented input-output relationships. A special case study for the Municipality of Chongqing, China, is conducted to analyze non-functional relationships which exist between the emissions of multiple IWGs and the related multi-dimensional impact factors through the proposed model. It was found that the total emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO 2) were larger than total ones of Fume and Dust (FD), while productions of SO 2 were fewer than the total FD productions, indicating that the government paid more attention to the handling process of FD than that of SO 2. In the Municipality of Chongqing, the indirect IWG emissions induced by urban household are far more than the ones resulted from rural household. For instance, the indirect IWG emissions of all sectors from urban household (i.e., 505.50 billion m3) are about seven times the ones from rural household (i.e., 72.31 billion m3) during 2002–2017. It is thus recommended that the emission mitigation should pay more attention on the urban household than rural household in Chongqing City. In addition, the mitigation policy scenarios aimed at specific IWG types and sector, which were produced based on the developed SCEM, show the best performances in terms of emission mitigations, demonstrating the applicability and superiority of the developed model in supporting policy development. • A stepwise clustered industrial waste gas management model is developed. • Non-functional relationships existing between multi-IWGs' emissions and related multidimensional impact factors are analyzed. • Six socio-economic source factors within IWG emissions are investigated. • Desired policies for IWG management are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We propose an index to assess sustainable development of Italian municipalities. [•] We composed 99 variables using an ‘objective’ weighting system resulting from PCA. [•] Labour market, demography and income/wealth accounted for the highest weights. [•] The spatial distribution of the composite index follows a north–south gradient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study applies a rights-based approach (RBA) to examine a municipal youth program in Montreal, Canada, from duty-bearers' perspectives — staff working in either municipal governments or youth organizations. Considering the complexities of actualizing the four dimensions of an RBA, we assess progress and ways of moving toward actualization. While embracing universality and equality, duty-bearers identified the challenge to mobilize youth and to respond to the changing ethnocultural diversity. Collaboration between local actors was considered most effective, although it required working through conflicting viewpoints. Accountability called for stronger relationships and sharing among duty-bearers across the city. Youth participation was most difficult because there was no consensus on its meaning or importance. Furthering an RBA requires supporting state and non-state actors by building capacity in multilevel skills, critical thinking, and broader approaches to assessment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study biomass-based energy production was introduced to an urban city area of Helsinki, Finland. The study compared two cases in integration with a municipality: (1) biomass fuelled small-scale CHP (combined heat and power)-plant and (2) a biorefinery. The comparison was made according to primary energy consumption, primary energy factors, CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions and the price of produced biowax. It was also studied how results are influenced by different assumptions. The results showed that the primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions were higher in the biorefinery case in absolute amounts as more products i.e. biowax was produced. The results indicated the primary energy factors were almost the same for both cases. Additionally, the primary energy use was very low for district heat and electricity produced in the biorefinery, when the primary energy use of the biorefinery was allocated only to the biowax. The sensitivity analysis of biowax pricing showed that a biorefinery is a competitive alternative for a CHP-plant if the prices of biomass and market electricity are low and the price of CO2 allowance is high. In terms of overall energy efficiency comparison, the comparison cannot be properly completed, because of the different end-products of the plants. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper public participation in Swedish municipal traffic planning is studied with the focus onto what extent and how municipalities and consultants interact with participants in traffic-planning processes. Telephone interviews with planners were performed and planners’ insight and knowledge of participation methods are analysed in order to give an indication of which prerequisites seem to determine potential involvement of users. The results imply that recurring user involvement is rare in the municipalities studied and that the planner’s attitude towards participation seems to be a determining factor, aside from resources like time and money. There seems to be good general knowledge of user involvement among the interviewed planners, but the level of understanding of methodological issues is considerably higher in municipalities where interaction is a recurring part of the planning. The results in this study imply that it might be relevant to balance which level of involvement is the most desired against what is possible in terms of resources and competence. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Within municipalities, the fulfillment of the demands and requests of the public is possible through the provision of services compatible with the public''s expectations and needs. Social utility is measured by the degree that municipal services positively correlate with public expectations, and maximum social utility is identified through cost utility ratios. This study focuses on cost utility analysis for the municipalities in the city of Eskisehir, and it offers recommendations regarding which municipality should be given priority in the distribution of scarce resources in a way to best meet people''s expectations. The characteristics of the two municipalities were determined by Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) to draw conclusions about the level of satisfaction with a given municipality''s provision of services. The utility indicators from the GRA were then related to the costs to discover the cost-utility results. The relevant findings reveal that the municipality of Odunpazarı produced greater utility than the municipality of Tepebası, although the former failed to generate utility in cost. On the other hand, the municipality of Tepebası attained the greatest utility in cost. Mass transportation appears to be the service that provides the highest levels of satisfaction in both municipalities, whereas road construction and asphalt services provide the least satisfaction, according to the public. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Managing urban population and environment has been one of the most important challenges recently. This paper attempts to assess the existing practices, people''s perception, gaps and ways forward for participatory urban forestry and aims to help promote UF through identifying the current status, future prospects for and peoples’ perception about UF in two cities of Nepal. The study was conducted in Pokhara sub-metropolitan city and Bharatpur municipality of Nepal. Total numbers of plants in the effective green spaces are estimated as 285,500 in Pokhara and 213,250 in Bharatpur, and the number of tree species was 62 and 52 respectively. The religious tree species –Ficus bengalensis and Ficus religiosa are the most common and hazardous in both cities. The urban people have preferred small, less branchy and attractive tree species. However, the choice of existing species is inappropriate and not according to the people''s interest. Therefore, urban people are unsatisfied with the existing species and their frequencies. The municipal authorities and other related organizations do not have any specific plan, programs and activities nor is there any public involvement to promote urban forestry. Regular coordination, cooperation and monitoring are required for the involvement of various stakeholders such as municipality, government office, community organizations and urban people. Analysis further shows that people''s perception on urban forestry is encouraging as most of them agreed that the urban forests are useful for addressing the challenging urban environment. Adequate institutions and financial resources coupled with effective cooperation and coordination among concerned organizations could ameliorate the urban environment as urban community forestry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The number of studies analysing income inequality and health are voluminous. However, when empirically testing the income inequality hypothesis, the level of aggregation could be crucial for whether we find an association or not and for the mechanisms we believe are active. This study hence investigates: 1) the two-year lagged effect by income inequality on health at two levels of aggregation; municipalities and neighbourhoods in Sweden; 2) whether spending on social goods accounts for the association between income inequality and health; 3) the effect by income inequality among the affluent and the disadvantaged in municipalities and neighbourhoods, respectively. The empirical data is based on a Swedish public health survey in 2002 and includes residents of Stockholm aged 18–84 years. The sample consists of 28,092 individuals nested within 22 municipalities and 709 neighbourhoods in the county of Stockholm with a non-response rate of 37 percent. A total population register (HSIA) is further used for the construction of contextual-level indicators. Primary method used is multi-level logistic regression. The findings indicate a moderate effect by high and very high income inequality on self-rated poor health at the municipality-level. The association, however, ceases after adjustment for spending on social goods. No detrimental effect by income inequality on self-rated health at the neighbourhood-level is found. The results further suggest that poor individuals residing in high inequality neighbourhoods do not have poorer health than those residing in low inequality contexts while high inequality is most deleterious for poor individuals at the municipality-level. In sum, the findings suggest that reduced spending on social goods could account for the association between income inequality and health at the municipality-level. The contrasting findings at the neighbourhood- and municipality-level indicate that it is important to consider the level of aggregation when studying health effects by income inequality. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As well known, the Open Source Software becomes the leading information technology day by day. There are open source alternatives of the most of the commercial softwares. In this case study, we will examine the open source software usage on the biggest municipality of Turkey; Çankaya Municipality. The IT department of the municipality uses open source software for various reasons and various places. The usage area includes both servers with internet services and desktop usage. In scope of this paper, the reasons of open source software selection and their usage places will be explained in detail for a case study. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To better understand the relation between coastal areas and their influence on social and economic conditions of municipalities, a set of indexes were developed to characterize coastal Mexico with an interdisciplinary approach. The composite of these bio-physical, social and economic indexes is referred to as an “integrated coastal orientation index”. Coastal characteristics should be taken into account in the coastal management policy formulation of a given region, and this index can be used to identify key areas for environmental protection or economic development at a national level. The results suggest that municipalities must manage their coastal jurisdictions, a large and diverse array of coastal space and ecosystems, medium to weak spatial demographics and settlement structures, infrastructure to improve quality of life, an overall low coastal population income, and various coastal activities. Spatial heterogeneity along the littoral zone in the coastal orientation led us to conduct a state analysis. We discuss these values and identify five highly coastal-orientated states in the extremes of the country. The development of this tool could help to pin-point different types of key areas within the regions studied and provide a tool to guide regional priorities. As an example, using a combination of extreme values of bio-physical, social and economic indexes was used to identify specific municipalities as candidates for environmental protection and others as areas where development can continue. Choices of indexes are discussed, and the relative importance given to each component of the coastal orientation (rather bio-physical, social and/or economic) will define the course of the coast''s development and its sustainability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Municipalities are increasingly adopting green public procurement practices in construction projects; one example is the specification of preferred building materials in public procurement tenders. Before tendering documents, different stakeholders and their ambitions influence the framing of material requirements. In this paper we explore factors initiating wood material selection in five public procurement cases, where the initiation phase of the procurement resulted in wood material use requirements specified in the public procurement tenders. Based on the cases, we constructed potential paths leading to building material requirements to be set in the tender documents. We also identified triggers initiating construction projects and offer a discussion of the role of different determinants related to building material use. These identified paths, triggers, and determinants unveiled the dynamics behind building material requirements in public procurement tenders and more specifically, the actions and underlying values for doing so. • Drivers for wood material promotion are multifactorial. • Finnish municipalities are increasingly requiring wood use in public procurement. • Political pressure or municipal-level agendas were present in all cases. • Procurement processes can be better understood via retrospective interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]