Journal articles on the topic 'Local spill-over effects'

Abstract The aim of the paper is to analyse if and in which way specialization, geographical localization and spill-over effects affect resilience. The research is carried out using LLMAs (Local Labor Market Areas) as observational unit and spatial data analysis techniques (Anselin 1999, LeSage & Pace, 2009) in Italy. Resilience literature focalized its attention on regions. Despite this, there is no general agreement regarding the most appropriate observation unit. Our aim is not only to investigate the relationship between specialization and resilience at smaller scale using the LLMAs as observation unit but also to explore the spatial relationship among them. Results highlight a strong spatial correlation among LLMAs. As consequence resilience is not only influenced by specialization but also by geographical localization through spill-over effects. JEL Classifications: R10, R12, C23, C33 Spatial analysis; Resilience; Labor Market Area; Italy

With the rapid development of urbanization and industrialization in China, environmental issues have become an urgent problem, especially issues related to air, water, and solid-waste pollution. These pollutants pose threats to the health of the population and to that of communities and have a vicious influence on the healthcare system. Additionally, pollution also exhibits spill-over effects, which means that pollution in the local region could affect the healthcare services in a neighboring region. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the relationship between pollution and healthcare. A spatial autocorrelation analysis was conducted and spatial panel econometric models were constructed to explore the characteristics of pollution and healthcare services in China and the relationship between them using data on all 31 provinces over 12 consecutive years (2006–2017). The results showed that the utilization of healthcare services and environmental pollution were not randomly distributed; unsurprisingly, air pollution and solid-waste pollution were mainly found in parts of northern China, while water pollution was highest in southern and coastal China. In addition, environmental pollution exhibited spill-over effects on healthcare services. For example, a 1% increase in solid waste in one specific geographical unit was estimated to increase the inpatient visits per capita in adjacent counties by 0.559%. Specifically, pollution showed different degrees of influence on healthcare services, which means that the impact of environmental pollution on the number of outpatient visits is greater than on the number of inpatient visits. Our results provide the government with evidence for effectively formulating and promulgating policies, especially policies aimed at tackling spill-over effects among different regions.

Using the data of 23 industrial sectors in China, this paper constructs an industrial spatial weight matrix based on an input–output table and employs a spatial model to distinguish the spillover effects among industrial sectors and find sectors’ heterogeneity and connectivity on the decoupling system, to explore the specific driving power source for stable and deeper industrial decoupling. The results show that unstable industrial growth decoupling from energy consumption appears and differs in the capital–labor–resource-intensive sectors. Decoupling effects spill over from the neighboring sectors and act as a warning on decoupling in the local sector. Both technical progress and scale efficiency except technical efficiency play a driving role in deepening industrial decoupling in the local sector and spill out positive effects on the green development of the neighboring sector. Capital, as the substitute for energy both intra and inter sectors, facilitates decoupling as a driving factor, while obvious resistant force against decoupling is brought by foreign direct investment (FDI) and energy structure. Decoupling in resource-intensive sectors has great potential due to the positive effects from technology and scale efficiency improvement, which are substitute effects. Industrial decoupling in the labor-intensive sector, where low-skilled labor forms obstruction force against green decoupling, only benefits from the technological progress. FDI and scale efficiency dominate as driving sources for decoupling in the capital-intensive sector.

Background: During zoonotic disease shocks (ZDSs), zoonotic disease outbreaks (ZDOs) can induce public health scares (PHSs), causing meat price risks (MPRs). Nevertheless, spatial spillovers of zoonotic disease shocks in meat markets remain unclear. We explore how zoonotic disease outbreaks and public health scares locally and spatially spill over to meat price risks, and whether spatial spillovers of public health scares decay with distance. Methods: (i) We construct a long panel covering 30 provinces and 121 months, using highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) epidemics as exogenous shocks in Chinese meat sector. (ii) We decompose zoonotic disease shocks into zoonotic disease outbreaks (objective incident) and public health scares (subjective information) and examine their spillovers to meat price risks. (iii) We identify distance-decaying spatial spillovers of public health scares, by running our dynamic SAR models 147 times, from 80 km to 3000 km with 20 km as incremental value, in a setting with risk-level heterogeneity. Results: (i) Zoonotic disease outbreaks themselves only cause local and neighboring meat price risks for high-risk meat, not for low-risk or substitute meat. (ii) Public health scares exacerbate local and neighboring meat price risks for high-risk and low-risk meat, and local meat price risks for substitute meat. (iii) Spatial spillovers of public health scares are distance-decaying and U-shaped, with four spatial attenuation boundaries, and distance turning point is shorter for high-risk meat (500 km) than for low-risk meat (800 km). Conclusions: We complement the literature by arguing that health scares induced by disease outbreaks negatively spill over to meat prices, with U-shaped distance-decaying spatial effects. This suggests low interregional spatial market integration in meat products, due to distance decay of nonstandardized information and local government control effects, across provincial boundaries. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to document nonmonotonic distance decay of health scare effects on food prices, previously not found by the literature.

PurposeDespite the recent trend of off‐shoring branches of UK services industry to remote locations, urban theory has yet to enlist a theory of industrial rents that formally takes into account the properties of substitution between locations. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the Fujita, et al. model in order to develop theoretical foundations for a pricing theory of contemporary commercial real estate markets.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs panel data methods for the simultaneous estimation of local market rent structures, which include a complex of spill‐over effects from all other parts of the national market. The estimations are based on time series of locally adjusted estimates of tenancy demand and supply proxies for 48 UK office centres. Influences from the entity of UK regions are considered by applying a variety of deterministic and stochastic structural variability tests. The estimated structures are subjected to multivariate co‐integration tests for an examination of the stability of structural differentials.FindingsThe paper appears to find considerable support to the hypothesis that rental spill‐overs exist across the network of office centres in the UK. It suggests that the structure of these markets is characterised by certain properties of substitution and complementarity that have generally been observed in a wide range of real consumer or producer markets. This finding is critical to the development of a policy theory for national planning, which takes into account the impacts of local planning policies on national aggregate economic welfare.Research limitations/implicationsThis analysis is limited by the unavailability of a coherent theoretical micro‐economic framework, which may be the focus of further research.Originality/valueThe focus of this paper is on offices and business services industry but the principles can be extended to include industrial space. The paper questions some of the central assumptions and methodological approaches used in existing industrial location theory. It proposes a model that considers location pricing and allocation in relation to strategies to improve the spatial organisation of multinational services firms.

Research shows that exposure to local neighborhood violence is associated with students’ behavior and engagement in the classroom. Given the social nature of schooling, these symptoms not only affect individual students but have the potential to spill over and influence their classmates’ learning, as well. In this study, I use detailed administrative data from five complete cohorts of students in the Chicago Public Schools (2002 to 2010), crime data from the Chicago Police Department, and school-level surveys conducted by the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research to assess the strength of this peer effect. The estimated negative relationship between peer exposure to neighborhood violent crime and individual achievement is substantial and remains after adjusting for other peer characteristics and student fixed effects. Surveys suggest these results are related to trust, discipline, and safety concerns in cohorts with larger proportions of students from violent neighborhoods.

Many countries strive to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) hoping that knowledge brought by multinationals will spill over to domestic industries and increase their productivity. In contrast with earlier literature that failed to find positive intraindustry spillovers from FDI, this study focuses on effects operating across industries. The analysis, based on firm-level data from Lithuania, produces evidence consistent with positive productivity spillovers from FDI taking place through contacts between foreign affiliates and their local suppliers in upstream sectors. The data indicate that spillovers are associated with projects with shared domestic and foreign ownership but not with fully owned foreign investments.

ABSTRACT On April 27, 1986, about 75,000 to 100,000 barrels of medium-weight crude oil spilled into the Caribbean Sea from a refinery in Bahía Las Minas, Panama. After weathering for 13 days in warm, sunny conditions, the oil reached the intertidal reef flat and biological reserve at Punta Galeta, which had been under study since the early 1970's. The pre-spill data base consisted of detailed, time-series monitoring of sessile biota on the reef flat in relation to changes in sea and weather conditions. To assess the effects of the oil, this monitoring was expanded to other sites and continued after the oil spill. Within the resolution of our measurements, most detectable mortality of the sessile biota occurred in specific zones of the reef flats where factors such as winds, waves, water levels, and topography caused the oil to accumulate. Where the oil floated over the reef flats without prolonged accumulation, little mortality was recorded. The sessile biota regenerated from fragments surviving in place or washing in from nearby habitats, and the regeneration times ranged from less than one year to more than five years. For the sessile biota, there appeared to be no recolonization via planktonic larvae or spores. The fastest regeneration times were for species that propagated from fragments that survived in place; the slowest were for species that suffered nearly 100 percent mortality and recolonized from fragments washing in from subtidal habitats. Because regeneration of sessile species on tropical reef flats depends on regrowth from local survivors, control and cleanup of oil spills in these environments should be designed to maximize the survival of resident populations.

Abstract This paper analyzes how development cooperation can actively support democratic governance through cooperation in the water sector. To answer this question, we develop an analytical approach based on democratization research and on water governance research. We tested the approach in three donor-supported water projects in Morocco and carried out over seventy interviews with key stakeholders. Our findings show (a) key factors influencing the scope for external support for democratic governance in the water sector, (b) potential negative effects of the support when local elites grasp new resources, and (c) unintended positive spill-over effects of water projects on democratic governance within and beyond the sector (for instance, strengthening formerly marginalized groups). As these empirical findings suggest, there is a potentially large scope of action for supporting democratic governance through water sector cooperation. We therefore highlight the need for more analytical and empirical research on causal interlinkages between these two fields of intervention.

In this paper we discuss the capabilities of input-output tables for obtaining the estimates of system effects generated by interregional interactions in the hierarchically organized space. Two options of integrating the concepts of interregional interactions and central place are presented, one of which implies the a priori, the other – the a posteriori solution to the problem of identifying (constructing) a market hierarchy. While the first one is used only in situations when the system effects are reduced to the spill-over of economic activity from the periphery to the center, the second one is used in more general situations when the system effects include not only spill-over effects but also the feedback effects. We consider the feedback loop input-output analysis, which allows us to get a posteriori estimates of regions distribution by the levels of spatial hierarchy. And determine that it had varying effectiveness for the cases of Japan and Russia. In accordance with the existing methods of decomposition of spatial multipliers the system effects of interregional interactions are determined, on the one hand, as a residual multiplier effect obtained after identifying the effects of intra-regional interactions, on the other hand, as a result of superposition of the effects of interregional interactions within the framework of dyads, triads, tetrads, etc. composed of regions. In order to obtain estimates of the system effects generated by interactions on markets of different levels (provided that these levels are identified), we propose the method of localizable partition, organizing the calculation of the structural blocks of spatial multipliers in the ‘from the general to the particular’ logic (from the system effects of interactions on the national market to the effects of interactions on local markets). On the basis of this method, we estimate the size and structure of the system effects absorbed by the economies of the three central regions of Japan (Kanto, Chubu, Kinki), which form the core of the national economic space

Significant foreclosure activity in a weak housing market area is a sign of trouble, suggesting potential subsequent neighborhood decline. This article focuses on an under-researched question of whether higher foreclosure rates in a neighborhood tend to spill over into adjacent neighborhoods. The authors detail exploratory spatial methods to identify where potential spillover effects occur: kernel density surfaces, space-time local indicators of spatial association (LISA) and LISA Markov. Using data for Franklin County, Ohio the authors find that foreclosure rate hotspots are concentrated in lower-income, more African-American central city areas. The majority of hotspots (around 90%) persist over time and space but about 10% of all hotspots are consistent with contagion effects between neighboring areas. Only 1-3% of neighborhoods experience spillovers as below-average to above-average cluster transitions. In general, contagion effects occur in areas with higher rates of African-Americans, poverty and lower median home values and incomes. However, the authors also observe a sub-trend suggesting possibly accelerated hotspot growth in otherwise comparable Caucasian areas.

AbstractPredicting potential pollination services of wild bees in crops requires knowledge of their spatial distribution within fields. Field margins can serve as nesting and foraging habitats for wild bees and can be a source of pollinators. Regional differences in pollinator community composition may affect this spill-over of bees. We studied how regional and local differences affect the spatial distribution of wild bee species richness, activity-density and body size in crop fields. We sampled bees both from the field centre and at two different types of semi-natural field margins, grass strips and hedges, in 12 strawberry fields. The fields were distributed over four regions in Northern Europe, representing an almost 1100 km long north-south gradient. Even over this gradient, daytime temperatures during sampling did not differ significantly between regions and did therefore probably not impact bee activity. Bee species richness was higher in field margins compared with field centres independent of field size. However, there was no difference between centre and margin in body-size or activity-density. In contrast, bee activity-density increased towards the southern regions, whereas the mean body size increased towards the north. In conclusion, our study revealed a general pattern across European regions of bee diversity, but not activity-density, declining towards the field interior which suggests that the benefits of functional diversity of pollinators may be difficult to achieve through spill-over effects from margins to crop. We also identified dissimilar regional patterns in bee diversity and activity-density, which should be taken into account in conservation management.

As China is facing the double pressure of economic growth as well as energy-saving and reduction of emissions, reducing electricity consumption without affecting economic development is a challenging and critical issue. Based on 31 provincial panel’s data in China from 2004 to 2018, this study empirically analyzes the direction and degree of the impact of financial development and trade openness on electricity consumption using the spatial econometric approach and panel vector autoregression (PVAR) model. The results indicate that China’s electricity consumption presents a significant spatial spill over effect, and the spatial agglomeration of electricity consumption in local regions is mainly HH clusters. A 1% positive change in financial development causes an increase of 0.089% in electricity consumption, but a 1% rise in financial development reduces electricity consumption of neighboring regions by 0.051%. A 1% positive change in trade openness decreases electricity consumption by 0.051%, while the spatial spillover effect of trade openness is not significant. It is also found that financial development has a long-term promoting effect on electricity consumption, while trade openness has a long-term inhibiting effect on electricity consumption.

Linking small farmers with modern agri-business firms through contract farming is viewed as one of the several ways to achieve crop diversification and enhance farmers’ income, besides bringing spill-over effects of such interventions for other local stakeholders like farm workers. This article examines the role of contract farming in crop diversification and employment generation in the context of Indian Punjab. Based on a sample of 50 contract farmers and 50 non-contract farmers for three firms each, the study shows that contract farming brings crop diversification and generates farm labour employment, particularly for women, due to the high value and labour-intensive nature of crops being grown under such arrangements. But, there exists a gender gap in wages and gendering of tasks, which demand policy and corporate attention besides regulatory oversight to achieve more equitable and pro-poor impact of contract farming.

The aim of this study was to estimate the short term consequences of job insecurity associated with a newly introduced mobility framework in Greece. In specific, the study examined the impact of job insecurity on anxiety, depression, and psychosomatic and musculoskeletal symptoms, two months after the announcement of the mobility framework. In addition the study also examined the “spill over” effects of job insecurity on employees not directly affected by the mobility framework. Personal interviews using a structured questionnaire were conducted for 36 university administrative employees awaiting repositioning, 36 coworkers not at risk, and 28 administrative employees of a local hospital not at risk. Compared to both control groups the employees in the anticipation phase of labor mobility had significantly worse scores for perceived stress, anxiety, depression, positive affect, negative affect, social support, marital discord, common somatic symptoms, and frequency of musculoskeletal pain. This study highlights the immediate detrimental effects of job insecurity on the physical, psychological, and social functioning of employees. There is a need for the development of front line interventions to prevent these effects from developing into chronic conditions with considerable cost for the individual and society in general.

Although the dawn of democracy promised a new beginning in South Africa, lingering effects of Apartheid remained, including the struggle to address gang violence and gender-based violence amidst the backdrop of widespread organised crime and corruption, social inequality, a sluggish economy, and poor service delivery. The last policy - National Anti-Gangsterism Strategy (2017) - required implementation at provincial level. This study examines the Western Cape policy content and deconstructs the concept of gangsterism. The paper shows that sustained anti-gang strategies and interventions demand structural obstacles and inequality are addressed in the context of the spill-over from the Apartheid era. Notably, it will be concluded that there are long-term benefits of reframing the problem of gangsterism in the Western Cape as ‘a youth-at-risk-crisis’ with specific attention gender-sensitivity to contribute to local peacebuilding by focusing on youth to exert agency and become empowered in pursuit of individual and community resilience and active citizenry.

It might seem incongruous that a research focused organisation such as the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry would pay attention to an issue as pragmatic as oil spills. After all, an oil spill tends to be viewed as a very practical matter, its issues characterised by loss of a valuable commercial product, damage to the environment, high costs of clean up, high legal liabilities, and very much media attention. Oil spills are not generally considered a pure or even applied chemistry issue. However, this would be a very short-sighted interpretation. Effectively every element of an oil spill, whether environmental, physical, operational or legal, is related to the complex chemistry of the oil and its breakdown products released to the environment. Indeed, it would be safe to say that if petroleum were a simple chemical product, the difficulties inherent in clean up of an oil spill would be much reduced, no matter what the origin or cause of the spill.The chemical nature of oil is directly related to the fate and environmental impacts of spilled oil, whether on water or on land, and to the effectiveness of the diversity of countermeasures which might be deployed. While evaluation of the effects of spilled oil on the environment receives much attention in forums with a biological or toxicological focus, which often do take into consideration chemical factors, the complex topic of the chemistry of oil spills in direct relation to countermeasures is examined more rarely. The various chapter in this document discuss a diversity of oil spill countermeasures, and target the chemical and consequently physical behaviour of oil which determines its characteristics at the time of the spill. While oil spills occur in fresh and salt waters, and on land, marine oil spills remain the larger issue - there tends to be more oil spilled, environmental problems are more complex, and countermeasures are more difficult to implement. The following papers generally reflect and review the current state of knowledge in their topic area, and are representative of the most recent surge in research and development activities, stimulated particularly by the Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1989. It appears that oil spill research undergoes cycles of interest, activity and funding, linked to key oil spills. Previously, the Torrey Canyon spill in the English Channel off Land's End, in the United Kingdom in 1967 provided general incentive for research and development, as did the Amoco Cadiz spill off the coast of Brittany, France in 1978. Other oil spills, such as the 1968 Santa Barbara Channel, California spill, or the Braer spill off the Shetlands in 1993, among others, have also stimulated specific areas of research and development on the basis of issues that arose in their particular spill scenario.The articles in this publication have been contributed by recognised international experts in the spill response field, and have received the benefit of peer review. The articles are representative of the major categories of oil spill response research, spanning a wide range of technologies, supportive knowledge and experience, to include reviews of:This collection of review articles concludes with an evaluation of oil spill response technologies for developing nations, appropriately so since that is where much of the oil development and production currently occurs in the world.One area which has seen much recent expansion is that of the essential linkage between detailed understanding of spilled oil physical/chemical properties and the effectiveness of response countermeasures. Crude oils and oil products are known to differ greatly in physical and chemical properties and these tend to change significantly over the time course of spilled oil recovery operations. Such changes have long been recognised to have a major influence on the effectiveness of response methods and equipment, which increases the time and cost of operations and risk of resource damage. All countermeasures are influenced, whether sorbents, booms, skimmers, dispersants, burning of oil and so forth. The incentive is for a rapid and accurate method of predicting changes in oil properties following spill notification, which could be used in both the planning and early phases of spill response, including an initial specific selection of an effective early countermeasure. In later stages of the response, more accurate planning for clean up method and equipment deployment would shorten response time and reduce costs. An additional benefit would be more effective planning for recall of equipment not needed, as well as potentially decreasing the risk of natural resource damage and costs due to more effective spilled oil recovery. The concept of "Windows of Opportunity" for oil spill response measures has been derived from multiple investigations in industry and government research organisations.Although dispersants have been used to date in almost one hundred large spills world-wide, government approval for dispersant use has long been inhibited by a lack of understanding of the factors determining the operational effectiveness of dispersants, and the environmental trade-offs which might need to be made to protect sensitive areas from spilled oil. Recent advances in chemical dispersant development, formulation of low toxicity dispersants with broader application, and better understanding of dispersant fate and effects have combined to a more ready acceptance of this countermeasure by many, although not yet all, regulatory authorities throughout the world. In addition to the category of dispersants, chemical countermeasures include many diverse agents, such as beach cleaners, demulsifiers, elasticity modifiers and bird cleaning agents, each with a unique and specialised role in clean up activities. However, the concerns for the use of these 'alternative chemicals' relate to the interpretation and application of toxico-ecological data to the decision process. If in the future the ecological issues concerning chemical treating agents can be further successfully resolved, the oil spill response community will have an increased range of options for response. However, extensive laboratory and field testing is required in many instances for new chemical dispersant materials and demulsifiers to improve the effectiveness of these materials on weathered oils and water in oil emulsions. The acceptance of in situ (i.e. 'on site') burning of spilled oil has been limited by valid operational concerns about the integrity of fireproof booms, the limited weather window for burning due to the rapid emulsification of oils, the need to develop methods for the ignition of emulsified and weathered oils, and public concerns about the toxicity of the smoke generated during burning. However, burning provides an option, another tool in the tool-box, for the responder called in to combat an oil spill. Burning decreases the amount of oil that must be collected mechanically, thus reducing cleanup costs, storage, transportation, and oily waste disposal requirements. It also would decrease potential contact with sensitive marine and coastal environments and consequently reduce the potential for associated damage costs. Laboratory and field studies over the last ten years have addressed essential information requirements for feasibility, techniques, and effectiveness, as well as health and safety. The results of research in situ burning has led to its acceptance in a number coastal jurisdictions throughout the world, prompting the response industry to purchase and position in situ burning equipment and train its operators to use this alternative technology in approved regions.Although not a direct recovery measure in itself, the application of remote sensing to oil spill response assists in slick identification, tracking, and prediction, which in many instances is an early requirement for effective response. An inadequate ability to see spilled oil seriously reduces effectiveness of oil spill response operations. Conversely, good capability to detect spilled oil, especially areas of thick oil, at night and other conditions of reduced visibility could more than double response effectiveness and greatly enhance control of the spill to minimise damage, especially to sensitive shorelines. Advances have been made in both airborne and satellite remote sensing. It has become possible to move from large and expensive to operate airborne systems to small aircraft, more widely available and practical for spill response operators. Also, the limitations in delayed data processing and information communication are being overcome by development of systems operating in functional real-time, which is essential for enhanced response capacity. Spill detection using satellites has also advanced markedly since 1989, with the ongoing intention to provide coverage of oil spill areas as early warning, or when flying by aircraft is not possible. An early useful application was an ERS-1 satellite program for detection of oil slicks, launched in 1992. More recently, spill detection capability has been developed for the Canadian Radarsat satellites, ERS-2 and a few other satellite programs.The topic of bioremediation of spilled oil, that is, to use microbes to assist in clean up, is a corollary to the deployment of traditional countermeasures. It had not seen much operational or regulatory support until the Exxon Valdez spill, where it was initiated as a spill mitigation method, establishing bioremediation as a major oil spill R&D area. Bioremediation of oil spills was defined as being one of three different approaches: enhancement of local existing microbial fauna by the addition of nutrients to stimulate their growth; 'seeding' the oil impacted environment with microbes occurring naturally in that environment; and, inoculating the oil impacted environment with microbes not normally found there, including genetically engineered bacterial populations. Research emphasis and regulatory countenance has been predominantly on the first approach. Evaluation of operational utility of is continuing to identify conditions under which bioremediation can be used in an environmentally sound and effective manner, and to make recommendations to responders for the implementation of this technology.The issue of hydrocarbon toxicity has been examined in petroleum refinery and petrochemical workers for more than a decade, and experimentally in test animals for a much longer period. However, there has been little specific information available on the effects of oil spills on human health, neither for oil spill response workers nor for incidentally exposed individuals. More recently, as reviewed in an article on human health effects in this publication, some reports have been published of skin irritation and dermatitis from exposure of skin to oil during cleanup, as well as nausea from inhalation of volatile fractions. Although there are to date no epidemiological studies of exposure by oil spill workers to petroleum hydrocarbons, the matter is drawing increasing attention.One of the more important issues surrounding the choice and extent of application of oil spill countermeasures is knowledge about the ecological effectiveness of such response, that is, the balance point between continuation of clean up activities and letting the environment take care of its own eventual recovery. It is the last point which has driven much of the discussions and research associated with the concept of 'how clean is clean', or, how much cleanup is enough or too much. The results of such diverse research efforts are being used increasingly and successfully to link spilled oil chemistry to countermeasures practices and equipment. The advances are being integrated into more effective response management models and response command systems. In summary, applied chemical research and development has actively contributed to an enhancement in oil spill response capability. Nonetheless, it seems that the pace of oil spill research and countermeasures development is slowing. The decrease is at least temporally associated with a decline in the frequency and magnitude of oil spills in recent years. Spill statistics gathered by organisations such as the publishers of the Oil Spill Intelligence Report, show that world-wide oil spill incidence and volume have continued to decline since the time of the Exxon Valdez spill event (see the Oil Spill Intelligence Report publication "International Oil Spill Statistics: 1997", Cutter Information Corp.). It is probably not coincidental that the amount of funding available for oil spill research and development, from both government and private industry sources, has declined similarly. In that context, the following articles are more a statement of currently accepted knowledge and practice, rather than being a 'snapshot in time' of intense ongoing research activities. The articles serve to capture the applied chemistry knowledge and experience of practitioners in a complex field, application of which remains essential for the development of improved oil spill countermeasures, and their effective use in real spill situations.

Extraction of natural resources has created significant contribution to the Malaysian economy as a whole. However, the growth and development of the industry do not necessarily bring considerable economic linkages to the local economy where the industry is located, thus fail to contribute to the welfare of local households. This paper validates this claim by examining the economic impacts of Crude Oil and Natural Gas; Petroleum Refinery; and Forestry and Logging industries on the state of Sarawak. For an empirical analysis, a regional input-output model that developed by using a so-called Simple Location Quotient technique, is used as the main methodology in this study. Results are consistent with our claim that the three industries show significant impacts on growth that measured by value added. However, socio-economic impacts that measured by employment are considerably low. The lower employment impacts can be supported by the two stylized facts. First, the extraction of natural resources is capital-intensive production. The activity requires skilled workers, which might be one of the factors contributing to lower income and job opportunities. Second, the industries are highly dependent on inputs from other states and from abroad, which eventually creates lower economic spill over effects within the state economy.

AbstractFew studies on the legacies of the Chinese Civil War have examined its effects on state consolidation in the borderland area between China and mainland South-East Asia. This paper empirically examines the impact of the intrusion of the defeated Kuomingtang (KMT) into the borderland area between China, Burma and Thailand. In the People's Republic of China (PRC), the presence of the US-supported KMT across its Yunnan border increased the new communist government's threat perceptions. In response, Beijing used a carrot-and-stick approach towards consolidating its control by co-opting local elites while ruthlessly eliminating any opposition deemed to be in collusion with the KMT. In the case of Burma, the KMT presence posed a significant challenge to Burmese national territorial integrity and effectively led to the fragmentation of the Burmese Shan State. Finally, in Thailand, Bangkok collaborated with the Americans in support of the KMT to solidify its alliance relations. Later, Thailand used the KMT as a buffer force for its own border defence purposes against a perceived communist infiltration from the north. This paper contextualizes the spill-over effects of the Chinese Civil War in terms of the literature on how external threats can potentially facilitate state consolidation.

In late 1996, oil and dispersed-oil treatments were released into six experimental plots of mature mangroves near Gladstone, Queensland. Local stands of mangroves are dominated by Rhizophora stylosa up to 10 m tall. Each plot enclosed approximately 20 trees in plots of approximately 40m2. The object of the experiment was to simulate a large oil spill flooding mangroves at high tide, and to ascertain the relative effects of treatments on sediments, trees and animals, and to monitor short term recovery over one year. The oil used was weathered Gippsland Light, a waxy crude oil. This was applied on its own and in combination with the dispersant, Corexit 9527, at the same dosage of 5L/m2. A large proportion, if not all, crustaceans in the mangrove plots died within two days of oiling. Trees died in some plots after 2−3 months. In this preliminary assessment, there was no simple reason why trees died in some plots and not in others. For example, the amount of hydrocarbon in sediments was not correlated with effect. However, there were indications of synergistically-related factors, including presence of dispersant, sediment porosity, the number of burrowing crabs, and the presence of the mud lobster, Thalassina squamifera. Furthermore, after one month, the treated plots were partially recolonised by leaf-eating crabs. We present a preliminary assessment of results and observations using current data on hydrocarbon levels in sediments, growth and canopy condition of mangrove trees, and the presence and quantity of leaf-eating crabs.

Virus pandemics have happened, are happening and will happen again. In recent decades, the rate of zoonotic viral spillover into humans has accelerated, mirroring the expansion of our global footprint and travel network, including the expansion of viral vectors and the destruction of natural spaces, bringing humans closer to wild animals. Once viral cross-species transmission to humans occurs, transmission cannot be stopped by cement walls but by developing barriers based on knowledge that can prevent or reduce the effects of any pandemic. Controlling a local transmission affecting few individuals is more efficient that confronting a community outbreak in which infections cannot be traced. Genetic detection, identification, and characterization of infectious agents using next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been proven to be a powerful tool allowing for the development of fast PCR-based molecular assays, the rapid development of vaccines based on mRNA and DNA, the identification of outbreaks, transmission dynamics and spill-over events, the detection of new variants and treatment of vaccine resistance mutations, the development of direct-acting antiviral drugs, the discovery of relevant minority variants to improve knowledge of the viral life cycle, strengths and weaknesses, the potential for becoming dominant to take appropriate preventive measures, and the discovery of new routes of viral transmission.

ABSTRACT On January 19, 2004, the bulk ore carrier, Rocknes, capsized after striking rocks near Bergen, Norway. Tragically eighteen crewmembers lost their lives. Approximately 450 tonnes of marine fuel was spilled. Oil quickly spread over 15 kilometers of the Norwegian coastline, threatening the pristine fjord environment and oiling hundreds of animals. In past oiling events in Norway, the government has utilized trained and certified sharpshooters to humanely euthanize oiled birds. Immediately following the Rocknes oil spill, a group of non-govemmental organizations (NGO's) working in Norway formed a coalition called “Action Clean Birds,” and asked the government for formal permission to mount an oiled wildlife response. Permission was granted on the stipulation that a professional oiled wildlife response team be brought in to oversee the animal capture, transport, rehabilitation and reconditioning of the animals. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Emergency Relief (ER) Team, co-managed by the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) was called upon to mount an oiled wildlife response effort. As the first authorized response for oiled wildlife in Norway, the Rocknes spill provided a platform to work with local wildlife rehabilitators, veterinarians, ornithologists and others, increasing their capacity to respond locally to future events involving oiled animals. During the month-long response, 131 oiled seabirds were captured, 81 of those were rehabilitated, reconditioned and released, the others died or were humanely euthanized as they were deemed unviable for release. If pre-planning had been involved, a significantly larger number of oiled birds could have been captured, increasing the probability that a higher percentage of them would have been viable for release due to early capture and treatment. This case study of the wildlife portion of the Rocknes response reviews steps taken to mitigate the effects of oil on wildlife, as well as demonstrates the importance of planning and preparedness as it relates to the success of an oiled wildlife response.

Globally, urbanization is now like a tidal wave sweeping the entire world and its impact is felt more in developing countries like Nigeria, where urban growth is marked by a dramatic shift with emphasis from rural to urban centers. Rural-urban migration which is one of the effects of urbanization has had grievous implications for urban housing delivery in Nigerian cities. Thus, the steady increase in her population over the years and its effect on the housing sector have become a problem of serious concern. Therefore, this research investigates the impact of urbanization and migration from rural areas on housing delivery in the city of Enugu in order to develop sustainable measures that will address the issue. It utilized a qualitative research method of direct observation and review of literature in which primary and secondary data were collected. The research results highlight some of the effects of Urbanization in the study area to include; gross housing shortage, increase housing rent and high land value in the city resulting to the emergence and expansion of many squatter settlements at the periphery of the city, incidence of haphazard situation of developments, change in land uses, violation of planning guidelines, suboptimal amenities and inadequate infrastructure as well as slum conditions. The study also identified 14 peri-urban squatter settlements with an estimated total population of 62,733 people; an indication of about 5.5% unaccounted spill over population with over 11,082 households in the city. Furthermore, it was observed that the current public housing provision in the city of Enugu over the period 1999-2020 is skewed away from low-income earners, who constitute a significant portion of the city's population. Conclusions and recommendations in the report include a call for strategic and comprehensive government intervention in the housing sector, as well as a demand for local building materials and a better use of union housing cooperatives with single digit interest loan for housing finance to ensure adequate provision of affordable housing to the growing population in the city.

The media play a contributing influence in exacerbating hostilities between war protagonists. Through particular representations, specific groups are either hailed or vilified; thereby resulting in a “spill-over effect” of negative stereotyping, prejudice, and hostilities among people beyond the physically-designated zones of conflict. The 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War, fueled by Israel’s history of military aggression in the region and ignited by Hezbollah’s cross-border raid into Israel and the associated capture and killing of Israeli soldiers, received extensive coverage in the South African press and had the effect of polarizing groups in support of a particular side. In this article, we examine a section of the local South African print media—capturing the conflict to reveal the main discourse themes, their hidden ideological positions and their legitimation through specific textual devices. The findings reveal a “discursive war” between news texts representing a favorable stance on Israel and Hezbollah respectively. Through characterizations and intertextual practices, (“right of existence” and “defense against terror” versus “religious resistance” and “Israel as the apartheid state” respectively) that provided legitimation for violence. The ideological effects of such media representations on the ordinary lives of South Africans physically removed from the conflict are considered. In light of the findings, considerations for discursive interventions are proposed in order to promote discourses of peace in the media.

The media play a contributing influence in exacerbating hostilities between war protagonists. Through particular representations, specific groups are either hailed or vilified; thereby resulting in a “spill-over effect” of negative stereotyping, prejudice, and hostilities among people beyond the physically-designated zones of conflict. The 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War, fueled by Israel’s history of military aggression in the region and ignited by Hezbollah’s cross-border raid into Israel and the associated capture and killing of Israeli soldiers, received extensive coverage in the South African press and had the effect of polarizing groups in support of a particular side. In this article, we examine a section of the local South African print media—capturing the conflict to reveal the main discourse themes, their hidden ideological positions and their legitimation through specific textual devices. The findings reveal a “discursive war” between news texts representing a favorable stance on Israel and Hezbollah respectively. Through characterizations and intertextual practices, (“right of existence” and “defense against terror” versus “religious resistance” and “Israel as the apartheid state” respectively) that provided legitimation for violence. The ideological effects of such media representations on the ordinary lives of South Africans physically removed from the conflict are considered. In light of the findings, considerations for discursive interventions are proposed in order to promote discourses of peace in the media.

The built environment reshapes various scenes that can be perceived, experienced, and interpreted, which are known as city images. City images emerge as the complex composite of various imagery elements. Previous studies demonstrated the coincide between the city images produced by experts with prior knowledge and that are extracted from the high-frequency photo contents generated by citizens. The realistic city images hidden behind the volunteered geo-tagged photos, however, are more complex than assumed. The dominating elements are only one side of the city image; more importantly, the interactions between elements are also crucial for understanding how city images are structured in people’s minds. This paper focuses on the composition of city image–the various interactions between imagery elements and areas of a city. These interactions are identified as four aspects: co-presence, hierarchy, heterogeneity, and differentiation, which are quantified and visualized respectively as correlation network, dendrogram, spatial clusters, and scattergrams in a framework using scene recognition with volunteered and georeferenced photos. The outputs are interdependent elements, typologies of elements, imagery areas, and preferences for groups, which are essential for urban design processes. In the application in Central Beijing, the significant interdependency between two elements is complex and is not necessarily an interaction between the elements with higher frequency only. The main typologies and the principal imagery elements are different from what were prefixed in the image recognition model. The detected imagery areas with adaptive thresholds suggest the spatially varying spill over effects of named areas and their typologies can be well annotated by the detected principal imagery elements. The aggregation of the data from different social media platforms is proven as a necessity of calibrating the unbiased scope of the city image. Any specific data can hardly capture the whole sample. The differentiation across the local and non-local is found to be related to their preference and activity space. The results provide more comprehensive insights on the complex composition of city images and its effects on placemaking.

The issue of gangs, and ensuing gang violence, predates democracy in South Africa. While the dawn of democracy promised a new beginning, the lingering effects of Apartheid remained, particularly the spatial configuration of cities and legacies of fractured communities. Cape Town, the country’s second largest city and metropole of the Western Cape province, exemplifies this more starkly than elsewhere, as apartheid spatial planning relegated the historically disadvantaged to the limits and outskirts of society, where they still remain, but the City of Cape Town perpetuated the relegation of the poor and working class to the verges. The nascent democratic government and newly recalibrated police forces have struggled to address gang violence effectively amidst the backdrop of widespread organised crime and corruption, social inequality, a sluggish economy, and poor service delivery. The National Anti-Gangsterism Strategy (2017), the country’s latest strategy framework, requires policy implementation at provincial level. This paper will assess the Western Cape policy content and deconstruct the concept of gangsterism so as to discuss the measures best suited to bring about change in society. It will be argued that sustained anti-gang strategies and interventions demand that structural obstacles and inequality in lieu of the spill over from the Apartheid era are addressed. Concludingly, the long-term benefits of reframing the problem of gangsterism in the Western Cape as ‘a youth-at-risk-crisis’ as such policy responses contribute to local peace, including the view to allowing youth(s) to exert agency and become empowered in pursuit of individual and community resilience and active citizenry.

Fiscal decentralisation refers to the transfer of authority and responsibility from central government to sub-national or the local government. It is mostly pre-assumed that fiscal decentralisation can play important role in the efficient allocations of resources and improvement of the political, economic and social activities. Many studies unlock the relationship between federal government and sub-national governments or local government. Fiscal decentralisation theories mostly based on Richard Musgrave’s (1939) functions of government. He defined three roles: stabilisation, allocation and distribution whereas, only the allocation function seems to be appropriate to fiscal decentralisation theory. Because these three functions are not equally suitable for all level of governments and it is necessary for efficiency that each function is properly matched to the level. It is a step forward towards more responsive and efficient governance if the decentralisation is done properly [Oates (1972)]. The logic behind fiscal decentralisation is accountability and efficiency; the smaller organisations are more fragile for accountability than the larger ones. However, decentralisation has not always been effective in the provision of service delivery and hardly accountable due to lack of community participation. If there is no spill over effects and in the absence of diseconomies of scale it could be effective and efficient. The sub-national governments where the externalities are internalised and scale economies are acceptable fiscal responsibilities should be assigned [Rodden, et al. (2003)]. The sub-national governments are much closer to the people and they are better informed to respond according to their demands of goods and services [Hayek (1945); Qian and Weingast (1997)]. Service deliveries are highly dependent on transfers from central governments. It is necessary to increase the revenue autonomy of sub-national governments and it is linked with the service delivery in social sector [Elhiraika (2007)]. Lower level of governments is closer to the people and much aware of the preferences of localities. Service deliveries should be located at the lowest level because decentralised provision of services increases the economic welfare [Oates (1999)].

Subject area – Marketing, innovation, strategy. Study level/applicability – Undergraduate, post-graduate and executive education. Case overview – This case is set in January 2012, a few days before the launch of Mysore Sandal Millennium, a super-premium luxury soap offering from the Indian public sector enterprise, Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Ltd. (“KS&DL”). Three years of research had been put into this product, which contained some of the finest, high-quality ingredients. KS&DL had, over the past decade or so, observed a significant fall in brand image for its signature product, the Mysore Sandalwood soap. While this soap had for many years been considered the premium brand in India, it had lost its place when well-known foreign brands became available in India, and local manufacturers moved towards this segment, manufacturing a whole new range of competitive products such as liquid body washes and gels. It was with an aim to rebuild its image that the company decided to launch the Millennium soap. KS&DL was clear that the product would be initially aimed at the high-income Indians, and then move to expand into the overseas market. However, it remained to be seen if the company could be truly successful in marketing a product priced at a level which would make it unaffordable to most Indians, other than a very thin layer of the ultra-rich. The question remains as to how KS&DL could best go about executing and communicating its strategy to make this launch a success. Expected learning outcomes – This case provides students the opportunity to learn about the challenges faced when a company launches a new brand, particularly a luxury brand in a developing country such as India. Through this case, students will learn about the concepts of brand extension, and, above all, vertical brand extension. It can also be used to discuss the spill-over effects of the launch (and its success) on other existing brands of the company, as well as the overall corporate brand. Supplementary materials – Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email: support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

ABSTRACT In situ burning of oiled marshes is a response method that can be more effective and less damaging to the marsh environment than more intrusive manual and mechanical methods, given appropriate conditions for burning. In situ burning has been examined for a variety of oiled marsh types and vegetation species; however, little to no published data are available for in situ burning of oiled Phragmites australis marshes (common reed, Roseau cane). In late May 2014, a pipeline spill occurred in Delta National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana, releasing an estimated 4,200 gallons of South Louisiana crude oil into a semi-permanently flooded Phragmites tidal freshwater marsh located on the Mississippi River Delta. Due to the remote location, degree of oiling, and difficulty of oil removal within the dense vegetation, an in situ burn was conducted in early June 2014 while the marsh was flooded. In order to examine the effectiveness and environmental effects of in situ burning for this marsh type, and ecological recovery over time, we monitored oiling conditions and ecological metrics for more than two years, comparing sites from three oiling/treatment classes: (a) reference (not oiled or burned), (b) oiled-and-not-burned, and (c) oiled-and-burned. The burn was effective in rapidly removing much of the gross oiling from the marsh, and also reduced residual oiling on the marsh vegetation. Oil concentrations in marsh soils were initially elevated in the oiled-and-burned sites, but were similar to reference conditions and below background levels after three months. Initial oiling and burning drastically affected the marsh vegetation and a common marsh invertebrate; however, overall ecological recovery was relatively rapid and habitat quality in terms of native plant species composition and wildlife value was enhanced by burning at a local scale, at least for several years. Based on these findings, in situ burning appears to be a viable response option to consider during future spills in marshes with similar plant species composition, environmental setting, and oiling conditions.

ABSTRACT 72,000 tonnes of light crude oil were released from the Sea Empress at the entrance to Milford Haven, South Wales over a 7-day period in February 1996, in an area of exceptional environmental value for wildlife, tourism and natural beauty. Natural factors (time of year, wind direction) coupled with effective cleanup at sea (through chemical dispersion) and on shore, minimised environmental impact. Nevertheless, there were adverse effects on fisheries, wildlife—particularly overwintering birds, tourism and amenity. (Human health studies have not been completed.) Recovery, although not complete, has been encouraging although some wildlife populations remain depleted and further monitoring is needed, including offish stocks. The U.K. Government has responded to recommendations by the Sea Empress Environmental Evaluation Committee (SEEEC), agreeing to continued monitoring and research, as well as reviews of aspects of operational response and cleanup and to the need for national and local contingency plans for impact assessment.

ABSTRACT In September 1983, the 218,000 deadweight ton VLCC Sivand collided with the jetty while berthing at the Immingham oil terminal on the River Humber in England. As a result of the collision, a 66-foot gash was sustained in the ship's hull below the water line and about 6,000 tons of Nigerian light crude oil was released into the Humber. A combination of fast currents and southeasterly winds carried the oil over a wide area of the estuary, polluting dock areas and river creeks and threatening a number of sensitive areas. The cleanup following this incident, potentially the most serious in the U.K. since the Torrey Canyon, was a coordinated operation involving government, local authority, and industry resources. Four hundred tons of oil was recovered from docks, rivers, creeks, and inlets using disc and vacuum skimmers. A further estimated 2,000 tons was dispersed chemically using boats and aircraft. Information on the effects of the oil and cleanup on the estuary has so far indicated that the impact was considerably less than originally feared. Monitoring of the estuary continues and should provide useful long-term information.

About one-third of trade in food and agriculture takes place within global value chains (GVC). Coffee, palm oil or biofuels production are examples of the modern organization of agri-food production through GVC (de Becker, Miroudot, 2014; Greenville et al., 2016; Baliè et al., 2019). Agricultural raw materials nowadays may cross borders many times before reaching the final consumers, as they are embedded in intermediate and processed goods which are produced in different countries. Agri-food GVC are typically characterized by a strong coordination between farmers, food processors or traders, and between processors and retailers. Value chain coordination can be initiated by downstream buyers, such as supermarkets and food processors, or by upstream suppliers including farmers or farmer cooperatives (Swinnen and Maertens, 2007; Reardon et al 2007). In a number of cases, a group of “lead firms” plays a critical role by defining the terms of supply chain membership and whom the value is added (Scoppola, 2021). The growth of the agri-food GVC raises new issues for the agricultural and food sectors. Participating to the GVC is expected to have several positive effects, both for countries and farmers, in terms of technology and knowledge spillovers, increased productivity, growth, employment opportunities, and ultimately increase of farmers’ income. On the other hand, market concentration in agri-food GVC raises concerns related to the emergence of market power (Swinnen, Vandeplas, 2014). Further, there are concerns that producing for agri-food GVC may result in the intensification of agricultural production, with negative environmental effects in terms of deployment of natural resources and water stress. Sound knowledge and evidence about the nature and implications of modern agri-food GVC are relevant for policymaker, firms and civil society. The economic analysis of agri-food GVC challenges agricultural and food economists in several respects. The complex nature of GVC and of the issues they raise makes it essential the use of new and multiple lens of analysis (World Bank, 2020). Country-level (macro) approaches to GVC are needed to investigate the drivers of the world-wide fragmentation of agri-food production and the welfare implications of countries participating to GVC. Recent progresses in the empirical trade analysis of GVC are certainly fundamental to the understanding of agri-food GVC. Industry level (meso) approaches are needed to investigate the relationship among the various stages of the GVC. Analytical tools and approaches from the industrial organization literature are to be used to investigate issues such the price transmission along the agri-food GVC, the drivers of vertical coordination or the distributions of benefits along the GVC. A firm level approach (micro) is needed to investigate the implications of the participation to GVC for farmers. The 10th AIEAA Annual Conference contributes to this debate, by putting together different disciplines and approaches to the analysis of agri-food GVC and of their implications in terms of economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Three keynotes explore these issues from different perspectives. The keynotes by Silvia Nenci Ilaria Fusacchia, Anna Giunta, Pierluigi Montalbano and Carlo Pietrobelli entitled Mapping global value chain participation and positioning in agriculture and food (Nenci et al., 2022) reviews key methods and data issues arising in country-level analyses of GVC. They overall conclude that improvements in GVC measurements and mapping are currently still severely limited by data availability. Empirical literature to date mostly uses global Input-Output matrices and aggregate trade data to map and measure GVCs; however, sectoral and country coverage remains rather weak. They further review recent evidence about trends of GVC, by using the GVC participation indicator and the upstreamness positioning indicator (measuring the distance of the sector from final demand in terms of the number of production stages) for two sectors, that is “Agriculture” and “Food and Beverages”. They show that at the country level, GVC participation is globally around 30-35 percent for both agriculture and food and beverages; while GVC linkages in agriculture are mostly forward linked, food and beverages are much more in the middle and at the end of a value chain. Furthermore, they show that, unsurprisingly, agriculture has a higher score on upstreamness with respect to the food and beverages sector. They conclude by discussing some critical issues faced by agriculture and food GVC concerning trade policies, technological innovation and the COVID crises. The keynote by Tim Lloyd entitled “Price transmission and imperfect competition in the food industry” aims at providing insights on how information is conveyed by means of prices between food consumers and agricultural producers along the agri-food value chains. After presenting some basic insights from theory, the keynote addresses the issue of how to detect the degree of market power by reviewing theory-consistent empirical models as well as the approaches developed in the New Empirical Industrial Organisation literature. The increased use of highly detailed retail (‘scanner’) data reveals that the food industry (retailing, manufacturing, and processing) is a major source of the price changes and that it also mediates price signals originating in other parts of the food chain in increasingly nuanced ways; the author concludes that agricultural and food economists should be wary of inferring too much about the competitive setting based on prices alone. The keynote by Miet Maertens entitled “A review of global and local food value chains in Africa: Supply chain linkages and sustainability” highlights the expansion of agri-food GVC in low- and middle-income countries and how GVC are modernizing rapidly through institutional, technical, and commercial innovations. While a large body of literature focusses on the development implications of participation in GVC, the development of local food supply chains in low- and middle-income countries has received less attention. The review assesses potential linkages between global and local value chains in African countries, and the sustainability outcomes of supply chain innovations. The keynotes emphasizes that market competition as well competition for land, labour, water, and other resources may create negative linkages between the development of global and local food value chains. Spill-over effects, such as investment, technical or institutional spillovers, may create positive linkages and complementarities in the process of supply chain development. The existence of such linkages importantly depends on the type of crop and the structure and organisation of supply chains and entail important consequences towards socio-economic and environmental sustainability.

In 2019, an oil spill in Brazil, of unknown origin, severely impacted coastal environs with the worst environmental disaster ever recorded in any tropical coastal region globally severely damaging South Pirangi Reef area in the state of Rio Grande do Norte (RN). Here we discuss acute and chronic impacts including chemical contamination and economic consequences all over the world and show some evidence of the oil spill in this biodiverse area. Moreover, the lapse between the moment of the disaster, and the action to manage it, was hampered by a political agenda coinciding with local and global tragedies that redirected public attention. Meanwhile almost 2 years have passed still without the offending party identification or culpability; and poor communities may continue to absorb its deleterious impacts for decades without consideration or compensation. This disaster occurred during the Brazilian government’s current issues involving extensive environmental mismanagement, resulting in a slow response from an inept system. It is with urgent necessity to spotlight this tragedy in this unique and sensitive reef habitat experiencing the ongoing damaging effects that include socio-economic losses not yet addressed.

Ecosystem functions are important for the resilience of ecosystems and for human livelihood quality. Intact habitats and heterogeneous environments are known to provide a large variety of ecosystem functions. Natural and near natural ecosystems surrounding agroecosystems may positively support crop growing conditions and thus facilitate crop yields. In contrast, monocultures of crops and trees as well as degraded landscapes are known to provide less ecosystem functions. The Taita Hills in southern Kenya are part of the Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot, and represent a habitat mosaic consisting of largely intact cloud forests, agroecosystems and plantations of exotic trees. In this region, subsistence farmers rely on ecosystem functions provided by natural ecosystems. In this study, we analyze three proxies of biodiversity and ecosystem functions, namely pollination activity, predation rates, and arthropod diversity in tree canopies. We set study plots along forest-agroecosystem-gradients, covering cloud forest, forest edge and agricultural fields, as well as plantations of exotic trees. We assessed environmental conditions, to evaluate the extent to which local environmental factors influence ecosystem functions. Based on these data we investigate potential spill over of ecosystem functions from forest into adjoining agroecosystems. For predation rates we found trends of spill over effects from forest interior into the agroecosystem. The expression of ecosystem functions differed among habitat types, with comparatively high predation rates in the forest, high pollinator activity in the open agricultural areas, and highest arthropod diversity along the forest edge. Eucalyptus plantations showed reduced ecosystem functions and lowest arthropod diversity. Local factors such as vegetation cover and flower supply positively influence pollinator activity. Our study show that natural ecosystems may positively contribute ecosystem functions such as predation, while the homogenization of biota through planting of invasive exotic tree species significantly reduce biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Transition habitats such as forest margins, and small-scale ecological enhancement positively influences biodiversity and ecosystem functions.

AbstractThis study assessed the impact of introducing a Sustainable Urban Drainage (SuDs) scheme to a socioeconomically deprived area, on residents buy-in and sustainable behaviours. Surveys were completed before the scheme was implemented by 180 residents (in affected n = 79 and neighbouring streets n = 101) and 1 year after the schemes completion by 51 residents. Following scheme completion, sustainable behaviours significantly increased by 17% in the scheme area and by 9% in the neighbouring streets. Written feedback indicated increased buy-in from residents affected by the scheme, and from neighbouring areas. Written feedback before the scheme included: (i) Concerns about parking; (ii) Liking the scheme; (iii) Feeling consultation was lacking; and (iv) Feeling the scheme was a waste of funds. Feedback after scheme completion included: (i) Feeling the SuDs improved the area; (ii) Remaining concerns about parking; (iii) Valuing the extra green space in the neighbouring area; and (iv) Wanting the SuDs in neighbouring streets. Introducing Green Infrastructure may improve resident’s sustainable behaviours. Importantly, residents in neighbouring areas became envious of the SuDs once completed and showed increased sustainable behaviours indicating spill-over effects. The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) recently took place, and England is considering statutory SuDs as seen in the scheme discussed here. Therefore, this research is particularly relevant to local authorities and stakeholders who can struggle to communicate the multi-benefits of sustainable urban design solutions.

AbstractRevised: Nov 6 2021The shortfalls of multilateral and regional organizations in respect of handling the COVID-19 pandemic have been well rehearsed by scholars and policy makers in multiple publications and statements. While the World Health Organization (WHO) and its regional offices have coordinated global responses, regional organizations, like the European Union, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or African Union, have played complementary roles. However, the response of different regions has varied, revealing multiple deficits in the structures of regional governance. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a region affected by chronic ongoing conflicts and serious inequalities in health and welfare provision, reflected in the absence of concerted responses to the pandemic. Its young population has meant lower comparative mortality rates, but the socio-economic spill-over effects are grave in terms of interrupted education, high unemployment, particularly in respect to vulnerable communities like refugees and migrant workers. With the current situation remaining critical, this paper reviews the impact of COVID-19 on MENA and considers the variable performance of states and institutions to the pandemic, highlighting the shortfalls, but also opportunities for collective action. Drawing on data from the WHO, United Nations (UN), regional organizations, media and secondary sources, it first discusses the wider global-regional context; second, reviews the actions of regional bodies, like the League of Arab States, Gulf Cooperation Council and the cross-regional Organization of Islamic Cooperation; and third, looks at some country-specific situations where both evidence of good practice and the absence of appropriate regional level provision have exposed deep regional divides. It concludes with a call for more collaboration between states and international organizations: better regional coordination is urgently needed to supplement existing multilateral efforts. A collective local response to the COVID-19 pandemic could help transcend regional divides and spur much-needed security cooperation in other areas.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is three-fold. The first objective is to contextualize and clarify the concepts of regional innovation systems and entrepreneurship, addressing their differences and complementarities and suggesting an analytical filter to enhance their understanding. The second aim is to question and analyse the challenges this renewed approach brings to the domain of territorial policy, namely, the role it may bring to local and regional development strategies, opening up the way for a set of public policy interventions on the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation promotion. Finally, the paper presents and analyses the example of Coimbra, a medium-sized city in Portugal, underlining both the role of academia and the Instituto Pedro Nunes-Incubator have had on these domains. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a case study approach, with an in-depth descriptive and exploratory analysis of the Coimbra entrepreneurial ecosystem. Findings The paper acknowledged the role entrepreneurial stakeholders have on the fertilization of the innovation and entrepreneurial Coimbra ecosystem. The Instituto Pedro Nunes-Incubator, with a new generation of startups, mostly born on its infrastructure as university spin-offs, gradually introduced a more business-oriented perspective on the local innovation system which, alongside the creation of a thicker networking and more profound cooperation culture, with the growing involvement of other local stakeholders such as science parks (Coimbra iParque), has had a decisive role on upgrading urban competitiveness. These new knowledge-based startups also have important spill-over effects that are beneficial to the growth of other firms in the same locality. There is evidence that they also provide an important Schumpeterian stimulus within economies by increasing competition, promoting innovation and augmenting the efficient allocation of resources within economies. Besides the more traditional transactional forms of support (tax incentives, grants, etc.), there is now the recognition that relational forms of support such as network building, developing connections between entrepreneurial actors, institutional alignment of priorities, fostering peer-based interactions have been strategic to improve both the efficiency and the effectiveness of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Research limitations/implications There is, thus, a need for more profound theorization and empirical research that can produce additional comprehension into this domain of the cause-effect relationships between entrepreneurship, innovation and local and regional dynamics. Some authors suggest, in particular, that the existing work on entrepreneurial ecosystems within popular business literature and academic research still has a deficit of a solid theoretical foundation, making the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach somehow both ambiguous and immature concept and, thus, reducing its generalizability and policy applicability. Research that evaluates the relationship between entrepreneurial performance and the level of government participation as part of governance systems will also be of great significance over the near future as it will help researchers and policymakers to realize better where the different stakeholders can enhance entrepreneurship and where their intervention will possibly diminish positive outcomes. Practical implications The main practical implications of this paper are associated with the need that urban and regional policymakers to formulate more business-led strategies to promote territorial innovation and entrepreneurship. The paper also offers conceptual tools that point out the need that innovation stakeholders, namely, universities, incubators and firms, have to assume more protagonism in promoting competitiveness and sustainability. Social implications The entrepreneurial ecosystem approach constitutes both a theoretical and analytical useful tool to define competitive strategies for urban and regional economies. Urban and regional-innovation ecosystem construction is a representative method of realizing territorial development and competition enhancement, through sustainable job and wealth creation. Originality/value This paper analysis summarizes and integrates the increasing and scattered literature of both the regional innovation systems and of the entrepreneurial ecosystems and delivers new insights for the future development of this field, namely, in terms of renewal of policy formulation and implementation. The singularity of the case study is associated with the fact that Coimbra entrepreneurial ecosystem is still largely embryonic, having its roots on a paradigm strategic shift the University adopted towards a more proactive role in terms of city aand regional development.

The work deals with the progressive system social and economic changes to be implemented in the given historical period in Georgia, which are based on the fundamentally different approaches to the economic policy. This is to lead an intensive rise in the population’s income and in the national production output, mass employment and will ensure the formation of an environment targeted to a long-term development of entrepreneurship. A special role for the social-economic development of a society is ascribed to the use of inclusive forms of entrepreneurship, which conditions, in turn, the necessity of the cooperation sector development – an important component of the modern economy. The cooperation projects proper have the viability and sustainability basis, which, together with economic selfgovernment, is conditioned by the high level of production concentration. Only by mass production (through reduction of prime cost, generation of added value in the uniform production cycle, constant, effective rather than impulsive operation). It would be possible to ensure competitive production and accumulation of a definite part of revenues from its sales for reproduction, without which the economic system development and the spill–over effects could not be achieved. Therefore, cooperation projects have objective bases of real viability and sustainability. The advantage of the given model consists in a complex nature of the main directions, ensuring thus the best conditions for approaching the optimum functioning of enterprises. The future of the Georgian village depends on the correct analysis and assessment of the key problems, without which the establishment of progressive views concerning its development and the working out of relevant projects would be impossible. The finding out of an organizational and legal form, most complying with the social and economic mission of the State in the village most prioritized in terms of the governmental support is of vital importance in the proper policy establishment. The work deals with the impact of agricultural cooperation and cooperative agro credit system on the entrepreneurial development of the population directly engaged in the agricultural sector and agricultural production. It also considers the major grounds for the development of agricultural cooperation in Georgia, describes the current economic state of the local agricultural production and rural population and makes an analysis of the increased migration causes and the organizational setup of agricultural activity. Thanks to analysis of the current social-economic state in Georgia and the experience of the successful countries, it is proved that the entrepreneurial activation of the population is best achievable by an active support of the cooperative sector, which will be directly reflected in the reforms to be implemented in the country regions and by using diverse forms of cooperation will enable mass employment of the population and intensive raising of national production output. A special and irreplaceable role of agricultural cooperation in overcoming rural poverty, in the stepping up of the entrepreneurial activity of the population and in implementing the complex process of forming a healthy middle class has been justified. The legal regulation of the agricultural cooperation process and the industrial regulations represent the main component identifying the organizational form of an agricultural cooperative, because the introduction of these rules proper creates an economic environment, in which a high degree of return of the labour resources of the population directly engaged in the agricultural production rather than the prospects of gaining dividends from the material resources contributed to the share fund represents the factor determining the rural entrepreneurial activity. The industrial regulations of the cooperative system represent the basis for minimizing the production risks, rising economic efficiency, stability and viability. The Georgian village owing to disregard and improper social-economic policy carried out for years has found itself in a very humble state. Under such conditions, the recovery by the complex and dissimilar system without the respective protective mechanisms and support is impracticable. Therefore, the establishment of a qualitatively new policy of inclusive social-economic development in respect to existing circumstances is a must, for which the inside and outside poverty-determining factors should be identified and the mechanisms of overcoming them be worked out. For conducting a viable national policy should be categorically defined that the hard economic standing of the rural population at the current stage is a problem of special urgency and the national policy should be mostly based on the given reality. For this, the special impact of agricultural cooperation and of cooperative agro credit system on the country’s development should be adequately thought out, and the State should, like many developed countries, undertake and fulfil the coordinating, organizing and supporting function of the sustainable and forced development of this system.