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Inter‐municipal cooperation (IMC) is increasingly becoming a tool municipalities use to achieve development goals and increase public service quality. However, in Central and Eastern Europe countries, including Poland, such a modus operandi is less common due to administrative and legal considerations. This article analyses one bicycle‐sharing project carried out jointly by 14 municipalities of the Gdańsk‐Gdynia‐Sopot metropolitan area in Poland. Based on a series of in‐depth interviews, the study aimed to consider what builds inter‐municipal cooperation at the local level. During the analysis, it proved that the various actors had different levels of commitment to cooperation based on substantive premises. Positive opinions about cooperation in the project resulted from partner and non‐hierarchical relations, fair and equal treatment without domination towards smaller municipalities. The study showed that in addition to the assumed effects of cooperation, the applied cooperation model allowed many added effects to be achieved, beneficial for all project partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local governments face revenue constraints and increasing demands for public service delivery. Confronted with fiscal pressures, cities, and counties engage in collaborative arrangements to save costs or improve service levels. However, the same pressures can also prevent them from seeking collaboration. Two distinguishable arguments in tension can be identified: fiscal stress as a driver or as a deterrent for collaboration. This study reconciles these contrasting views using longitudinal network analysis to examine how fiscal stress affects the likelihood of collaboration in four critical service areas. Results point toward fiscal stress negatively affecting collaboration in service areas when economies of scale are not achievable, and increasing the likelihood of collaboration in service domains where these scales are possible. Understanding when fiscal stress affects collaboration is particularly relevant given resource disparities at the local level. Such inequality can create reinforcing cycles of fiscal stress and reduced opportunities to collaborate in service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid expansion of cities, the construction of 15-minute communities has become an important way to improve the urban living environment and enhance the quality of life of residents. In this study, based on the perspective of a 15-minute community in Chengdu, the current situation of the spatial layout in the 12 main urban districts of 15,941 public service facility points is studied. Additionally, the matching relationship between the supply and demand of five major categories (19 subcategories) of public service facilities and the population is assessed by using the kernel density analysis method, the Gaussian two-step floating catchment area method, the hierarchical analysis method and the bivariate spatial autocorrelation. Finally, suggestions for the optimization of basic service facilities are made in the light of the current development situation in Chengdu. The results show that (1) there is a large spatial heterogeneity in the distribution and accessibility of public service facilities in the study area; (2) there is a mismatch between the supply and demand of public service facilities and the population in Chengdu; and (3) in order to further optimize the allocation of public service facilities, it is necessary to focus first on areas where demand exceeds supply. This study built a framework for assessing the current status of spatial distribution of public service facilities, which measures the 15-minute accessibility of basic public service facilities in a more comprehensive way and bridges the gap of previous single-type studies, which make it difficult to make comprehensive optimization recommendations directly. Meanwhile, the bivariate spatial autocorrelation reveals the areas of mismatch between supply and demand more accurately, and more clearly shows the areas that need to be focused on for optimization by policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart cities are becoming increasingly popular today due to various digital technologies in their infrastructure. One of the most critical challenges in the proper implementation and establishment of these cities is the violation of the security and privacy of users, which leads to citizens' distrust and pessimism about smart city services. Many factors can affect the protection of users' privacy. Identifying these factors helps developers understand what dimensions and aspects affect users' privacy, through which they can provide appropriate solutions to protect the privacy of the user. Therefore, this study identifies and evaluates these dimensions. The authors proposed a novel methodology for identifying factors influencing user privacy in smart cities using the meta-synthesis method and the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL). As a result of the meta-synthesis application, the authors identified seven dimensions of interest, specifically, Awareness and understanding, Trust, Self-control and personalization, Transparency, Reference standards frameworks and rules, Data management, and Security requirements. Moreover, using the DEMATEL technique and expert-based reviews, those seven dimensions were classified as cause and effect. As a result, the authors discovered that security requirements (D7) are the only cause dimension. As effect dimensions, "awareness and understanding (D1)," "data management (D6)," "trust (D2)," "frameworks and standards (D5)," "personalization and self-control (D3)," and "transparency (D4)" have been identified. Furthermore, the authors discovered that transparency is the most effective dimension in terms of affecting user privacy in smart cities. These findings may serve as guidelines for implementing the smart cities initiatives and protecting users' privacy. This study also provides a discussion and insights for smart city developers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assess unequal responsiveness to citizen demands for municipal goods and services using a dataset of about 42 million 311 requests from 13 large cities between 2011 and 2019. We report three findings. First, we find no evidence that cities respond to requests from whiter and more affluent neighborhoods faster than they do the same type of request from less white and affluent neighborhoods, even after accounting for proxies of neighborhood need. On average, however, white, rich neighborhoods receive faster responses to their calls than non-white, poor neighborhoods. Additional analyses suggest that these disparities may not reflect deliberate bias on the part of cities in favor of the needs of whites and the rich, but rather that non-white and poor neighborhoods tend to ask for services that require more time and resources for the city to respond to. Our paper provides the most comprehensive and contemporary analysis to date of inequalities in U.S. city service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport matters for health and education outcomes, by ensuring physical access to crucial facilities. Using spatial modelling techniques and routable public transport service data, this study assesses the effectiveness of mostly semi fixed-route public transport systems in connecting people to advanced healthcare and education facilities in African cities. Uncovering significant pockets of ‘accessibility poverty’ – travel times above an acceptable level – it underscores the inequality in access within the cities, disproportionately affecting poor populations. Proximity of public transport to homes matters but has limited impact, due to how the routes, operated mainly by informal service providers, are allocated across the urban space and the low technical performance. The low ‘value added’ of public transport compared to walking helps explain the prevalence of foot travel. Tailored policy interventions – improving the public transport systems and, equally importantly, ensuring more equitable spatial distribution of advanced healthcare facilities – emerge as crucial strategies for addressing accessibility poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of how urbanization affects the urban–rural equalization of basic public services (BPS) remains unexplored, although BPS equalization is an important means of achieving common prosperity. Based on the BPS supply and demand perspective, we examine the path mechanisms through which urbanization affects urban–rural BPS equalization. Based on panel data from Chinese prefectural cities from 2003 to 2020, a TOPSIS model, combined CRITIC-entropy weights and an information entropy function, are used to measure the level of urban–rural BPS equalization. Considering the spatial spillover effect of urbanization, a dynamic spatial Durbin model is constructed to empirically examine the impact of urbanization. The study found that, overall, the direct and indirect effects of urbanization on urban–rural BPS equalization are significantly positive, and urbanization is conducive to urban–rural BPS equalization improvement in cities and surrounding areas. The effect of urbanization on urban–rural BPS equalization significantly varies between different regions. The study concludes that the process of people-centred urbanization should be accelerated to optimize the spatial layout of BPS, promote high-quality economic development and achieve common prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Global South, encompassing more than 80% of the world population, heavily relies on informal paratransit services with ad-hoc routes. Yet, it remains unclear how efficiently such informal public transport services organize and operate. Here, we analyze and compare the structural efficiency of more than 7000 formal and informal bus service routes in 36 cities across 22 countries globally. Intriguingly, informal transport self-organizes in ways at or above efficiency levels of centralized services. They exhibit fewer detours, more uniform paths, and comparable interconnectivities, all while remaining profitable without the major subsidies common in the Global North. These insights challenge the global perception of informal transport as an inferior alternative to centrally organized services. More generally, analyzing large-scale microscopic transport data and condensing them into informative macroscopic observables may qualitatively improve system understanding and reveal specific options to create more accessible, efficient, and sustainable public transport solutions. Informal transportation services constitute the primary form of public transport in the Global South. Here, the authors analyze the structure of route networks in cities across the globe, showing how informal routes self-organize into consistent line services that often outperform centralized services in the Global North, exhibiting fewer detours and comparable interconnectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sub-Saharan cities are growing and changing due to immigration and modernization. One of the consequences of the current urbanization is that an increasing number of families residing in peri-urban areas of small rural towns lack access to basic municipal and ecosystem services. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the impacts of peri-urban expansion on municipal services provided by the governments and on ecosystems services through a case study of a small rural town called Makhado Biaba in Limpopo Province of South Africa. Makhado Biaba has been experiencing incessant rapid physical expansion over the years. Such spatial expansion into the peri-urban zone impacts the provision of municipal services such as water, electricity, sewerage, and refuse collection. In 2020, an exploratory mixed-methods study of some anthropocentric and ecosystem changes in Makhado Biaba Local Municipality in northeast South Africa was executed. Land use was mapped for the time period of 1990–2020, data were gathered through a household questionnaire in six villages, and interviews were held with municipal officials. Among others, the study showed that several municipal services are available in the peri-urban villages of Makhado Biaba Town despite the distant locations outside the urban core. However, services are not uniformly distributed due to that new peri-urban developments that are leapfrogging into vacant land without supporting infrastructure. The pace of the municipality in providing the necessary municipal services such as water and energy supply, as well as sanitation and refuse removal, is lagging behind the development of new and unplanned housing areas. The findings bring about information about the suburban livelihoods and how the administration of the peri-urban areas can respond to the needs of the inhabitants as well as to future challenges. For instance, to facilitate local development, recurrent and well-structured citizen dialogs with local groups to identify delivery failures are strongly recommended. In addition, the impact on ecosystem services by the city development and land use change stresses the need for guided urban development and expansion and also settlement upgrading programs in peri-urban zones to limit the bad effect on ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Available data to depict socioeconomic realities are often scarce at the municipal level. Unlike recurring or continuous data, which are collected regularly or repeatedly, nonrecurrent data may be sporadic or irregular, due to significant costs for their compilation and limited resources at municipalities. To address regional data scarcity, we develop a bottom-up top-down methodology for constructing synthetic socioeconomic indicators combining a genetic algorithm and regression techniques. We apply our methodology for assessing income inequalities at 178 municipalities in Spain. The genetic algorithm draws the available data on circumstances or inequalities of opportunities that give birth to income disparities. Our methodology allows to mitigate the shortcomings arising from unavailable data. Thus, it is a suitable method to assess relevant socioeconomic conditions at a regional level that are currently obscured due to data unavailability. This is crucial to provide policymakers with an enhanced socioeconomic overview at regional administrative units, relevant to allocating public service funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subunits within a city provide different levels of public services to discrete areas. In theory, these subunits, which typically combine public and private characteristics, enhance preference satisfaction and opportunities for democratic participation in city governance. But they also raise issues concerning their ability to serve the interests of their constituents and of the city that hosts them. This Feature addresses the extent to which those who manage subunits are likely to exhibit fidelity to their constituents and the city. Investigation of managers' incentives leads to a distinction among subunits, largely based on their function. Private-based subunits that serve purely economic interests are likely to be faithful to their constituents but demonstrate less fidelity to the city. Subunits that serve broad community needs are likely to demonstrate less fidelity to their constituents' service needs but more fidelity to the city; however, conflict with the city is more likely where these community-based subunits seek to exercise political authority. Since community-based subunits seek to raise services for their constituents to the level enjoyed elsewhere in the city, any conflict with the city implicates its obligation to provide all residents equal services on a nondiscriminatory basis. The ability of subunits to help the city perform that obligation entails a need for the city's deference to community demands for those services that the city fails to provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regulation of illegal buildings is a common problem in various cities in Indonesia, including Cirebon City. These buildings are often constructed without official permission from local governments, leading to issues such as insecurity, environmental damage, and discomfort for the surrounding community. This study aims to evaluate the role of the Civil Service Police Unit in regulating these buildings and identify the factors influencing the success of their efforts. The research employs a normative juridical method, examining the norms and rules related to the issue, combined with a sociological approach through direct observation and interviews. The findings indicate that while the Civil Service Police Unit has made efforts to regulate illegal buildings in Cirebon City, their efforts have not been optimal. Challenges include a lack of personnel, inadequate infrastructure, limited budget, and low public awareness of local regulations. However, supporting factors such as the quality of human resources and effective internal and external coordination and communication exist. It is recommended that the Cirebon City Civil Service Police Unit enhance public awareness through socialization of local regulations, increase the budget, improve facilities and infrastructure, and enforce strict sanctions against violators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in the foodservice industry can not only provide guidance for merchants, but also spatially optimize the urban foodservice industry, restaurants' location selection, and customers' purchasing decisions. In this study, taking Sanya city as the research object, using big data crawling technology to collect the directory and their attribute information of 2107 restaurants with more than 100 reviews. Kernel density analysis, grid analysis and the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model were applied to reveal the distribution characteristics and influencing factors of eWOM in the foodservice industry in Sanya, China. The main results are as follows. The foodservice industry in Sanya extends along the southern coastline and is characterized by little dispersion and agglomeration at the macro level. The overall eWOM score of the foodservice industry is low. Market popularity, restaurant rating, transportation conditions, and commercial development all have a positive impact on the eWOM of the foodservice industry. Population and price have both positive and negative effects and the public services has a nonsignificant impact on the eWOM. This study not only improves the theoretical understanding of the foodservice industry, but also provides a general reference for its development in other industries and cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our digitally driven society, advances in software and hardware to capture video data allow extensive gathering and analysis of large datasets. This has stimulated interest in extracting information from video data, such as buildings and urban streets, to enhance understanding of the environment. Urban buildings and streets, as essential parts of cities, carry valuable information relevant to daily life. Extracting features from these elements and integrating them with technologies such as VR and AR can contribute to more intelligent and personalized urban public services. Despite its potential benefits, collecting videos of urban environments introduces challenges because of the presence of dynamic objects. The varying shape of the target building in each frame necessitates careful selection to ensure the extraction of quality features. To address this problem, we propose a novel evaluation metric that considers the video-inpainting-restoration quality and the relevance of the target object, considering minimizing areas with cars, maximizing areas with the target building, and minimizing overlapping areas. This metric extends existing video-inpainting-evaluation metrics by considering the relevance of the target object and interconnectivity between objects. We conducted experiment to validate the proposed metrics using real-world datasets from Japanese cities Sapporo and Yokohama. The experiment results demonstrate feasibility of selecting video frames conducive to building feature extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong local investment capability is an important source for sustaining urban resilience, while outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) is the overseas transfer of local investment. Has OFDI mitigated the resilience of Chinese cities? Using the panel data of 272 prefecture level cities in China from 2008 to 2021, this research quantitatively measured urban resilience and studied the impact and mechanisms of OFDI and its extensive margin and intensive margin (dual margins) on urban resilience. The results showed that: (1) OFDI and its dual margins significantly enhanced urban resilience, and the extensive margin played a greater role in promoting urban resilience. (2) From the perspective of urban scale, the role of OFDI in enhancing the resilience of large cities was stronger than that of small and medium sized cities, and large cities as well as small and medium sized cities had comparative advantages in enhancing urban resilience at the intensive and extensive margins of OFDI, respectively. (3) In terms of regions, OFDI and its dual margins in the eastern and central/western regions significantly improved urban resilience, and OFDI in the eastern and central/western regions had comparative advantages in improving urban resilience in terms of extensive margin and intensive margin, respectively. (4) In the period of shock resistance, the intensive margin of OFDI had a relatively large role in promoting urban resilience, and in the period of recovery and adjustment, OFDI and its extensive margin had a relatively large role in promoting urban resilience. (5) From the perspective of the action path, OFDI enhanced urban resilience by enhancing local technological innovation capability, improving local industrial structure, and promoting the integration of local industrialization and urbanization (industry city integration), and the mediating effect of industry-city integration was more prominent. This means that: (1) Government work in the eastern and western regions and large cities should focus on cultivating leading industrial enterprises and providing targeted public services, while that in the central region and small and medium sized cities should aim at reducing outward investment barriers and providing basic public services, with each other developing in a staggered manner. (2) During the shock resistance period and even during the pre shock resistance period, governments at all levels should take precautions, issuing warnings to leading industrial enterprises, and providing targeted assistance in hedging against shocks. The focus should be put on working with host countries through various bilateral agreements and investment arrangements to wade through difficulties, while during the recovery and adjustment period, governments at all levels should focus on further improving their own institutional constructions, improving the local business environment, and relieving enterprises of their worries to motivate more enterprises to engage in foreign investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our objective in this paper is to evaluate the benefits of bus transit. To obtain the more accurate and highly discrimination results, this study establishes an evaluation indicator system from a stakeholder perspective and proposes a novel combined method consisting of dynamic network data envelopment analysis, cross-efficiency evaluation, and Shannon entropy aggregation method. An empirical study of bus transit systems in 33 key Chinese cities from 2016 to 2019 is provided. The results show that the benefit of bus transit in most key cities was ineffective. In contrast to production efficiency, focusing on improving service effectiveness is more conducive to improving the benefits of bus transit. Small cities have higher benefits than large cities. Meanwhile, the benefits of bus transit vary geographically. This evaluation outcome provides a more appropriate basis for decision-making related to the benefits of public transit services, as well as for operational and management studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few decades, many Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) engaged in processes of decentralization in which responsibilities of the national government are transferred to local government units (LGUs). Yet, it is still unclear under what circumstances LGUs in recently decentralized CEEC can deliver high-quality public services. We put forward the argument that political, administrative, and financial factors related to characteristics of the LGU, and their implementation structure can explain the quality of public services, understood here as the compliance with standards set at central government level. We deduce a set of hypotheses which we test with the example of the public service of preschool education in Albania using generalized linear mixed-effects models. We find that albeit fiscal factors are important, the relation between money and high-quality public services is more complex than previously assumed. We find that private donations can undermine central government standards, and that requirements not involving financial costs are more likely implemented. Further, political, and administrative factors, although previously often neglected, play an important role. We find that outsourcing certain functions leads to higher service quality, and that urban areas provide higher quality services indicating that political actors need to focus on rural [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of urban hierarchy and scale distribution are crucial in urban research, as they examine the laws of urban development and the functional layout of urban spatial systems. However, previous studies have focused on the macro-spatial distribution of the economy, businesses, and population at the regional level, whereas systematic research on the scale distribution of retail formats in central urban areas is lacking. Therefore, this study investigated the hierarchical scale distribution of retail formats in the top ten cities in China by GDP, using the Public Service Facilities Index Method to define central district boundaries, using scale as an epistemological framework of order and analyzing the spatial distribution patterns of retail formats. The results revealed that the spatial hierarchical scale follows a power law within a certain range; the spatial distribution exhibits stage characteristics, providing a quantitative method for defining retail centres; and the dominant functions, development directions, and morphological characteristics of central districts influence the hierarchical scale distribution of retail formats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-production often appears as a virtue in academic research and planning practice, particularly in shrinking cities, which struggle to develop effective policies and provide sufficient level of public services. In this paper, we argue that the urban shrinkage context imposes significant limitations to co-production practices, that we urge should not be neglected. Drawing on three contrasting projects in Riga (Latvia), Nevers (France), and Heerlen (the Netherlands), we explore existing limitations and consider possibilities to overcome them. The analyses show that the efficacy of co-production practices is impaired due to a reduced level of trust towards public authorities; selective outmigration; weakened social capital; and political prioritizing of private sector interests over civil society. To overcome these, we discuss the role of several tools, namely mediating actors, independent funding, civic empowerment, and the willingness of public authorities to regenerate power relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the public sector has been looking for ways to accommodate increasingly critical citizens by striving towards a less bureaucratic and more efficient organization, as well as more direct forms of communication. Government institutions try to respond more quickly to citizens' concerns and want to ensure that citizens can contact them more easily and find relevant and accurate information promptly. To achieve this, they often turn to technological aids. This article focuses on how municipalities analyze and follow up minor violations and street nuisances. We used semi-structured interviews with key informants from the relevant services of the municipality of Schaerbeek, a district of Brussels (Belgium), to examine how the technological innovations implemented within the municipality transform the relations between local authorities and their citizens, as well as the internal relations between the different municipal services. Although the respondents were unanimous about the added value of these technological solutions, our analysis shows four clearly recurrent issues : (1) the "functional reduction" associated with technological innovations leaves little room for the complex context of social nuisance; (2) government services are currently flooded by a "tsunami" of communication flows; (3) so-called "innovative" technological solutions often mimic old bureaucratic processes; (4) new communication tools are not equally integrated into all levels of local administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, an increasing number of Chinese cities have experienced population decline, impacting the urban economy, public services, and paid use of state-owned land (PUL). This paper employs a coupled coordination degree model and the gray correlation coefficient method to examine the relationship between the rate of population change from 1990 to 2020, the rate of PUL change from 2000 to 2020, and the coupled coordination of economy and public services. The study arrives at several conclusions: (1) Cities with declining populations exhibit a lower PUL rate than those without population shrinkage, indicating reduced activity in the land market. (2) Population growth plays a significant role in the coordinated development of the urban economy and public services, fostering urbanization. (3) The economy and public services in shrinking cities rely heavily on revenue generated from the transfer of PUL rights to support their coordinated development. This research provides an insightful comparison between shrinking and non-shrinking cities by integrating the unique compensated land transfer system in China with the critical variable of population change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As the main body that unites farmers internally and connects with markets externally, professional farmer cooperatives are playing an increasingly important role around the world. In order to investigate the significant factors influencing this subject in agricultural socialization services, 487 cooperatives in Heilongjiang Province were selected for investigation. The field survey found that many of the better-developed cooperatives have a certain degree of inadequacy in the performance of their service functions. This paper proposes that viability and government support are important factors influencing the realization of the service function of farmer professional cooperatives. Based on the empirical analysis of sample survey data and econometric models, it was demonstrated that the experience of the chairman, the number of board members, the distribution of members, the scale of land operation, profitability, and the institutional arrangement of the cooperatives are an important embodiment of the viability of the cooperatives. These factors significantly influence the service function of cooperatives in different sections, including pre-production, mid-production, and post-production. Moreover, obtaining external support from the government is necessary for cooperatives at their primary stage of development, especially regarding relevant training, which can facilitate the realization of the service functions of cooperatives in all aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The post-2008 economic recovery period has seen varying degrees of improvement in the well-being of young individuals across different countries, regions, and cities of the EU. This study contributes to the literature on the geography of well-being by examining the impact of urban economic contexts on the subjective well-being of youth in Europe, a topic that has received limited attention so far. Specifically, we investigate how the local economic context has affected financial satisfaction among the young (15-35 age group) in European cities during the recovery period after the economic crisis. We study whether living in a city with better opportunities in the labor market, on the housing market, or with better local services (e.g., education or health care) affect financial satisfaction among the young. We carried out multilevel analysis of financial satisfaction among young adults on data from the Quality of Life in European Cities survey (years 2012, 2015, 2019), which asks about aspects of quality of life among a representative sample of the population in a large number of cities in EU Member States. Overall, the results suggest that a better labor market context (where it is in general easier to find a job) has a statistically significant positive effect on financial satisfaction among the young. Our results also show that satisfaction with the financial situation among young adults is significantly higher in cities with a higher quality of local social services. On the other hand, we have found only small (and statistically non-significant) contextual effect related to the local housing market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital era has influenced public service innovation. Many districts/cities in Indonesia use digital service innovation to overcome the maladministration problem in civil registration services, however, Seluma regency government has chosen to maintain physical moment of truth through the Pekan Sagu innovation. This innovation is in the form of increasing service hours on Saturdays and Sundays through door-todoor service. The researcher chose a qualitative paradigm in order to reveal the natural conditions of the unit of analysis with a case study design. Primary and secondary data were collected through interviews, observation, and documentation studies, with triangulation of sources, time, and methods. The research results show that Pekan Sagu has the dimensions of compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability. This innovation maintains the public service moment of truth which is actually the weak point of previous problems of public service because of maladministration. A direct in-touch service policy with an extension of service time can be a short-term solution to overcome some target groups’ problem who are not yet technologically literate, however, the government still has to educate citizens and prepare the need for digital-based services to meet the demands of long-term civil registration services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science and technology innovation corridors are important spatial carriers for the coordinated development of future urban agglomerations in China. Based on a coupling coordination evaluation method, this study builds an index system for the evaluation of collaborative development of the "industry-city-innovation" region, and conducts the index evaluation and coupling coordination evaluation on the "industry-city-innovation" in the Xiamen-Quanzhou Science and Technology Innovation Corridor, in the hope of exploring measurement and evaluation methods for the development level of science and technology industrial parks. Based on multidimensional quantitative evaluation, the study concludes that Xiamen and Quanzhou own a solid foundation for economic development and science and technology innovation. However, the difference in the innovation cultivation environment between the two cities is an apparent shortcoming in the construction of the science and technology innovation corridor. Moreover, according to the coupling coordination evaluation of the "industry-city-innovation" system, the result shows that the overall coupling coordination degree of Xiamen City is generally high. The various counties and districts along the Xiamen-Quanzhou Science and Technology Innovation Corridor are mainly affected by the coupling of "city innovation," forming an obvious spatial agglomeration form. The influence of industrial elements is relatively weak. At the same time, the study uses the gray correlation analysis method to evaluate the factors influencing the coupling coordination degree. It is found that in terms of the degree of influence, city > industry > innovation, and the proportion of age population of labor force, the public service index, and the proportion of added value of the tertiary industry are key factors. Finally, considering the collaborative development with "industry-city-innovation" as the driving force, this study puts forward specific policy suggestions for the construction of the Xiamen-Quanzhou Science and Technology Innovation Corridor based on the coupling evaluation results, providing a reference for the future development of science and technology innovation corridors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the new stage of China's economic development, significant transformations have occurred in the mode, emphasis and speed of urban development. Enhancing the level of livelihood public service and promoting the green development of cities have emerged as the prevailing themes of contemporary urban development. Based on a theoretical model analysis, using the panel data of 281 cities in China from 2007 to 2020, this paper adopts the fixed-effect model for empirical analysis. The study revealed the following four main points. (1) The provision of livelihood public services can effectively enhance the efficiency of urban green development. After conducting a series of robustness tests, this conclusion is still valid. (2) The provision of livelihood public services only fosters the green transformation of non-resource-based cities, while its impact on resource-based cities remains non-significant. (3) The mechanism test demonstrated that livelihood public services promote green development efficiency mainly through population, innovation and producer services agglomeration. (4) The threshold effect test showed that there are differences in the nonlinear relationship between the livelihood public service level and urban green development efficiency under different threshold variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies often donate to support public service delivery in US cities. Although this can help alleviate budgetary struggles for those governments, it is unclear what effect it may have on the individual residents receiving the services. In this paper, we argue that people who receive services funded in part by corporate donations are less likely to hold their local governments accountable if the services are of poor quality, because they no longer conceive of themselves as being the sole set of interests the government is catering to. We test our theory using a survey experiment with a realistic fictional government email and find evidence that, when compared with people receiving strictly taxpayer-funded services, people who are told services are provided in part by companies are less likely to take the quality of services into account when they vote. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public bus is one of the major green transport modes in most cities, and a proper analysis of public bus can enhance its sustainable development. Hence, the analysis of public bus is always a hot research topic. Generally, to consider the heterogeneity in the studied area and reduce the computation difficulties, the study area is divided into multiple zones and then various analytical methods are applied. However, an improper zone division could lower the quality of the analysis results and then probably mislead the improvement strategy design. This study examines the influence of the two commonly used zone division methods (the grid-based method and the natural-boundary-based method) on the spatial analysis of public bus service using the analytical example. The result shows that the impact of zone division exists. Therefore, this study aims to identify the possible approach to reduce the negative impact and suggests a new zone division method, the bus-service-based (BS-based) method, for the spatial analysis of public bus service. The BS-based method is compared with the commonly used zone division methods using the real-world data, and the comparison results demonstrate that the BS-based method can be more efficient to support the spatial analysis of bus service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyse active labour market policy efficiency for rural young NEETs integration into the labour market in the socioeconomic context of rural municipalities in Lithuania. For the empirical analysis, the administrative data of the public employment service concerning active labour market policy measures, e.g., training and mobility support, subsidised employment, and support for establishing or adapting workplaces of 2018 and 2022, as well as Lithuanian statistics data of 2018 and 2020 are used. The socio-economic environment of rural municipalities was analysed using the economic indicators (complex index), public transport accessibility, average wage, and free vacancies indicators. The recipient's integration into employment after six months of participation in active labour market policy measures is analysed. The data revealed poor economic indicators, undeveloped public transport, lower average salaries, and a need for more vacancies in rural municipalities. The integration into employment fell significantly in two rural municipality clusters after the Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions applied to contain it have had on urban public transport services in the five Spanish cities with a population in the interval of 170,000 inhabitants. To do this, the passenger data of the different urban transport systems of these cities have been studied, their evolution throughout the pandemic and in the so-called new normality has been analyzed, and they have been compared with those of previous years. The result shows a fairly similar percentage decrease in most cases, which also corresponds to the trend registered in the set of urban services in Spain. There is no relationship between the existing passenger traffic in each service before the pandemic and the decrease experienced during it. However, those cities that previously registered a higher volume of users show a greater percentage recovery in 2021 than those whose volume of travelers was lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The article aims to diagnose the water supply system of the municipality of Conceição das Pedras - State of Minas Gerais, from the evaluation of the user's perception, in order to evaluate the quality of the service provided. Methodology: The population's perception was raised through the application of a data collection form on the water supply system, containing 17 closed questions and 3 open questions. The form was applied via Google Forms in March 2022 and 108 responses were obtained. Relevance: The users' perception is essential for the management and planning of actions to meet the water supply. Still, the provision of public sanitation services, especially in municipalities operated by local institutions, needs research and greater attention. Main Results: Important information was collected, such as notes that water sometimes has color, taste and odor. There are also complaints of greasy water. From the users' perception, the system has a low number of interruptions in the water supply and a brief resolution of the issue. With this, it can be pointed out that, even with the water supply system presenting some possible problems, the majority of the population considers the water quality to be good or regular, which is extremely important for the population's quality of life. Contributions: We hope that the information gathered by this research can contribute to a better management of the city's water supply system, as well as the applied methodology can serve as a guide for other papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a comparative analysis between urban and rural areas concerning the magnitude or intensity with which the constructs are related to expected quality-perceived quality-perceived value as influencing aspects in the level of satisfaction and citizen loyalty in three dimensions: Territorial planning and roads; provision of municipal services and environmental management. This research used the PLS software applying the ACSI model in the 5-hypothesis approach. A questionnaire was delivered to a sample population of 428 citizens in the rural area of Tenguel and 521 citizens in the urban area of Tarqui in the city of Guayaquil. The statistical result shows significant differences in citizen perception between urban and rural populations about the quality of public services, which determines satisfaction and loyalty in choosing the place of residence. Through a multi-group analysis, the main differences in the perception of the quality of services between rural citizens and urban citizens have been identified. These findings are essential for public policy design to improve the territory's satisfaction, well-being, and people's sense of belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study looks at how different city government structures affect housing assistance and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. It examines the impact of various governance structures like the Mayor-Council and Council-Manager. The research uses data from surveys of 1,201 local governments in the United States. The results show that cities with a Council-Manager system are more likely to offer ESL and housing assistance. They often work with nonprofit organizations to provide these services. In contrast, municipal governments with a County Commission structure are less involved in ESL and housing assistance. These findings suggest that the way a city is governed has a big impact on public services. This affects how cities are run and their policies. However, the study's method and the fact that only a small percentage responded to the survey are limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing carbon emissions is of paramount importance to the accomplishment of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The effect of rural e-commerce on agricultural carbon emissions (ACEs) is controversial, and particularly the mechanism behind the effect is unknown. To identify the impact of rural e-commerce on agricultural carbon emissions and its mechanisms, we take advantage of China's Rural E-Commerce Demonstration County Program (REDCP) as a quasi-natural experiment and use the multi-period difference-in-difference (DID) model to investigate the relationship between rural e-commerce and agricultural carbon emissions. Our data are based on panel data of 355 prefecture-level cities from 2010 to 2019 in China. We identify that rural e-commerce can reduce agricultural carbon emissions by an average of 14.4%, but this effect is not long-lasting. Mechanism analyses suggest that the reduction effect of rural e-commerce on agricultural carbon emissions is mainly due to fostering agricultural economic growth, increasing the share of low-carbon industry, and improving agricultural total factor productivity (TFP). Further heterogeneity analyses demonstrate that rural e-commerce has better carbon emissions reduction performance in eastern cities as well as in non-major grain-producing cities in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main purpose of the article is to draw attention to the subject of cognitive technologies application, with particular emphasis in smart city. An analysis of this guess is particularly important at the moment we have it right now, namely right more and more to do with artificial intelligence and its use for intelligent city management. Design/methodology/approach: This article uses the method of analyzing the results of research on the cognitive technologies in smart city available in the subject literature and in Internet sources. Findings: In the realities of today's economy, many cities and metropolises want to be places that are increasingly friendly to their residents, those who work in them, visitors, tourists, etc., in a sometimes difficult because volatile macroeconomic environment. In this reality, however, there are cities that have succeeded in terms of accessibility and friendliness for people using the services of a city or metropolis. They are distinguished by high development dynamics and high quality of services. They occupy a significant place in the national and even international market. In the consciousness of modern citizens (especially the younger generation), the need for constant innovation in agglomerations has become noticeable, so that living/functioning in them is simply easier through access to more modern services. Research limitations/implications: The article refers to the results of research on the cognitive technologies in smart city, both in Europe and in the world, with emphasis on the place of Poland against their background. Research is conducted on a continuous basis, because the factors that directly affect the quality of life in a smart city can constantly change - evaluate. Social implications: The research results shown are important from the point of view of society. They are also a hint and a hint for future situations that may happen that it is worth being prepared for any changes, which is of great importance from the point of view of quality of life in a smart city and city management. Originality/value: The innovative article is based on an in-depth analysis of the factors contributing to the increase in the quality of life in a smart city and the improvement of city management. The obtained results of the analysis and the formulated conclusions may allow their implementation to improve the quality of life in a smart city in the future using modern cognitive technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, digital advancement and tourists have become even more interrelated in the urban dynamics and cities' trajectories. This connection influences cities' strategies and the choices of internal (citizens) and external (tourists) users. This evolution includes the advance of new digital services that boost cities into a new, more efficient, dynamic, sustainable, and customized context in line with the current tourism needs and trends. Therefore, the implementation of digital services in cities represents a current and innovative process that implies an incremental evolution of the local environment, directly contributing to the ongoing transformation of cities. However, this evolution must focus on cities' users and not only on local policies. Thus, using a GMM method and a 9-year panel dataset covering 30 cities in Italy, this paper shows that the relationship between digital services and tourism inflow is positively related up to a point in which it tends to be an inverted U-shaped curve. These results contribute to the current debate about the overdevelopment of technological advances in cities and smart tourism trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using public transport is an important part of daily routine of many people in large cities and consumes considerable time and financial resources. Enhancing public transport can help in encouraging less use of privately owned motor vehicles and, therefore, in emitting less greenhouse gases. Hence, there is a need to improve public transport and make it more attractive than private motor vehicles. This study aims to assess commuters opinion on several aspects related to using public buses in Istanbul with the ultimate aim of making them more attractive than private motor vehicles. A total of 620 randomly selected bus commuters responded to a questionnaire specially prepared for this purpose. Satisfaction rates with most aspects related to public buses were found to be high. Nevertheless, non-parametric test results revealed that female commuters recorded significantly lower satisfaction rates than male commuters on many aspects related to public buses. Results also revealed that a significantminority of commuters walk for long distances to the nearest bus stop or wait for very long times for the next bus to come. Moreover, results revealed that commuters of older ages and higher income levels recorded significant higher satisfaction rates than others. Results also show that the majority of commuters support increasing bus fees during peak hours in order to minimize crowdedness during these hours. Implications of these results for decision makers in megacities on ways to encourage the use of public buses are discussed at the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart cities provide integrated management and operation of urban data emerging within a city, supplying the infrastructure for smart city services and resolving various urban challenges. Nevertheless, cities continue to grapple with substantial issues, such as contagious diseases and terrorism, that pose severe financial and human risks. These problems sporadically arise in various locales, and current smart city frameworks lack the capability to autonomously identify and address these issues. The challenge intensifies especially when trying to recognize and respond to unprecedented problems. The primary objective of this research is to predict potential urban issues and support their resolution proactively. To achieve this, our system makes use of semantic reasoning to understand the ongoing situations within the city. In this process, the 5W1H principles serve as inference rules, guiding the extraction and consolidation of context. Firstly, utilizing domain-specific annotation templates, we craft a semantic graph by amalgamating information from various sources available in the city, such as municipal public data and IoT platforms. Subsequently, the system autonomously infers and accumulates contexts of situations occurring in the city using 5W1H-based reasoning. As a result, the accumulated contexts allow for inferring potential urban problems by identifying repeated disruptions in city services at specific times or locations and establishing connections among them. The main contribution of this paper lies in proposing a comprehensive conceptual model for the suggested system and presenting actual implementation cases and applicable use cases. These contributions facilitate awareness among city administrators and citizens within a smart city regarding potential problem-prone areas or times, thereby aiding in the preemptive identification and mitigation of urban challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Sweden transformed its geography of local government in 1952 and 1962–1974, the number of municipalities was reduced from 2,498 to 278. The reforms were infused by the "central place theory," which aimed to identify a larger town as the "local capital" (centralort) for each municipality. The centralort became the municipalities' political and administrative center, responsible for providing public services to surrounding settlements. Taking our point of departure in this historical legacy, as well as the literature on "geographies of discontent," we ask whether there are geographical tensions within today's Swedish municipalities. Are there differences in satisfaction, trust, and views on the future of one's place of residence when comparing the centralort with its surrounding settlements? Using two datasets—Statistics Sweden's citizen survey carried out in 241 municipalities and Trustbarometer in 49 municipalities—we find that citizens in the centralort are more satisfied with democracy than those in peripheries, where individuals residing in the municipalities' most rural parts are the most dissatisfied. Moreover, different issues are perceived as more pressing and salient in the centralort compared to surrounding settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to look at the impact and effect of corruption in the local municipalities in South Africa by indicating that corruption is rampant and being perpetrated with impunity despite anti-corruption laws for holding corrupt people accountable. It highlights the severe impact of corruption on the basic municipal services, the socio-economic conditions of the people, and the society at large. The literature review method was employed to systematically examined and tackled the issues at hand. The findings of the study highlighted that widespread corruption across various sectors hindered the provision of essential services to those in need, including the poor and vulnerable individuals who should have been the primary beneficiaries. The paper showed that due to corruption and maladministration, most of the local municipalities have been rendered bankrupt. The paper strongly stressed the need for consequences and holding perpetrators accountable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continual acceleration of urbanization, the amount of urban infrastructure and the quality of public services are increasing in many cities. A pressing concern in this context is the growing problem of incompatible fire protection construction, indicating a need for urban fire stations with well-planned layouts. However, research on optimizing the layout and placement of fire stations by considering the various factors affecting station layouts is lacking. The current study addressed this gap by establishing an optimal fire station layout by using a geographic information system (GIS) and elucidated the trends of GIS application in firefighting and rescue operations. The study's findings reveal the benefits of avoiding blind spots, enhancing the selection of fire station sites, and optimizing service coverage. Furthermore, this study optimized the layout of CZ city's downtown fire stations, which could enhance CZ city's firefighting capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Sweden transformed its geography of local government in 1952 and 1962–1974, the number of municipalities was reduced from 2,498 to 278. The reforms were infused by the "central place theory," which aimed to identify a larger town as the "local capital" (centralort) for each municipality. The centralort became the municipalities' political and administrative center, responsible for providing public services to surrounding settlements. Taking our point of departure in this historical legacy, as well as the literature on "geographies of discontent," we ask whether there are geographical tensions within today's Swedish municipalities. Are there differences in satisfaction, trust, and views on the future of one's place of residence when comparing the centralort with its surrounding settlements? Using two datasets—Statistics Sweden's citizen survey carried out in 241 municipalities and Trustbarometer in 49 municipalities—we find that citizens in the centralort are more satisfied with democracy than those in peripheries, where individuals residing in the municipalities' most rural parts are the most dissatisfied. Moreover, different issues are perceived as more pressing and salient in the centralort compared to surrounding settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With urban areas facing rapid population growth, public transport plays a key role to provide efficient and economic accessibility to the residents. It reduces the use of personal vehicles leading to reduced traffic congestion on roads and reduced pollution. To assess the performance of these transport systems, prior studies have taken into consideration the blank spot areas, population density, and stop access density; however, very little research has been performed to compare the accessibility between cities using a GIS-based approach. This paper compares the access and performance of public transport across Melbourne and Sydney, two cities with a similar size, population, and economy. The methodology uses spatial PostGIS queries to focus on accessibility-based approach for each residential mesh block and aggregates the blank spots, and the number of services offered by time of day and the frequency of services at the local government area (LGA) level. The results of the study reveal an interesting trend: that with increase in distance of LGA from city centre, the blank spot percentage increases while the frequency of services and stops offering weekend/night services declines. The results conclude that while Sydney exhibits a lower percentage of blank spots and has better coverage, performance in terms of accessibility by service time and frequency is better for Melbourne's LGAs, even as the distance increases from the city centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]