District Boundaries Research Articles

Income sorting by specialized services: Service differentiation by overlapping governments

AbstractBackgroundThe flexible boundaries of special districts allow for overlaps with each other that generate various specialized service bundles on a territorial basis. The combined overlapping boundaries may reveal willingness to have more services at additional costs as the special districts generally provide services selectively to those who reside within their boundaries.ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate whether overlapping special districts sort citizens by income level as reflected by the Tiebout model.MethodsThis study utilizes a cross‐sectional block group data of Ventura County in California, taking numbers of vertices of special districts as independent variable and household income as dependent variable.ResultsEstimation result demonstrates that a greater number of specialized services is associated with higher income levels and varies by service type.ConclusionFindings of this study imply that income segregation could be predetermined by jurisdictional boundary, and that other subjects of urban segregation may have similar pattern.

ANALYSIS OF MEASURES OF PROPERTY SUPPORT FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES IN THE REGION

Under the conditions of the pandemic, the issue of support for small and medium-sized enterprises becomes especially relevant, since they are the ones that suffer financial losses more than other enterprises in the period of restrictions and reduction of the purchasing power of citizens. Most often tax measures of support and direct payments from the state are considered, in our article we will talk about property measures that have a significant impact on the stabilization and development for existing entities and sustainable formation for start-up entrepreneurs. The article uses both statistical analysis, including within the boundaries of the federal district, and sociological research that complements and specifies statistical data. As a result, the main problems of providing measures of property support were identified, which will allow the authorities and development institutions to adjust their policies and instruments.

Assessment of Respiratory morbidity burden from exposure to vegetation fire-PM2.5 in Upper Northern Thailand for the year 2018

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The seasonal occurrence of vegetation fire in the Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) has deteriorated air quality, which can increase respiratory diseases. Nevertheless, no study has assessed the health burden from exposure to vegetation-fire smoke in the MSEA. We aimed to estimate the number of hospital visits from respiratory diseases attributable to vegetation-fire PM2.5 in the Upper northern Thailand (UNT). METHODS: The modelled vegetation fire-PM2.5 were obtained from System for Integrated modeLling of Atmosheric coMposition (SILAM) model, which is a global-to-meso-scale air pollution dispersion model. Vegetation fire-PM2.5 were simulated based on fire radiative power data of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data. We averaged the extracted grid-cell of fire-PM2.5 within district boundaries. The number of respiratory disease-related hospital visits attributable to fire-PM2.5 was estimated for the whole year and burning period (January to April) of the year 2018 by using the modelled daily fire-PM2.5, population data, and concentration-response function derived from the previous epidemiological study. RESULTS:In 2018, we estimated 17,817 hospital visits for respiratory diseases attributable to vegetation fire-PM2.5 in the UNT. Our estimation was accounted approximately 1% of the total hospital visits for respiratory diseases throughout the year and 3 % during the burning season. CONCLUSIONS:This study suggests that PM2.5 emitted from vegetation fire events poses a health burden across the UNT. KEYWORDS: Health burden estimation, Vegetation fires, Hospital visits, Respiratory diseases

TRENDS: The Geography of Law: Understanding the Origin of State and Federal Redistricting Cases

Knowing where legal complaints arise can tell us something about them and reveal clues about their conditions of origin. In this paper, we examine the geographic origins of litigation challenging the boundaries of electoral districts—an increasingly salient and prominent source of political conflict. We construct an original dataset of all redistricting cases in state and federal courts nationwide, from 1960 to 2019. We show that redistricting litigation surfaces not just in states where there are regions undergoing rapid population change or that have a greater proportion of aggrieved racial minority groups but also in areas where there is close partisan competition. The filing of redistricting litigation is highly responsive to hypercompetitive political environments, suggesting that parties pursue judicial intervention vigorously when political power hangs in the balance and not simply due to demographic changes associated with decennial population measurement. These findings have important implications for understanding the temporal and spatial dynamics of redistricting politics and the consequences of intense partisan electoral competition in the United States.

Результаты рыбохозяйственного обследования русловых прудов Курской области

The article presents the results of a cadastral fisheries survey of a group of riverbed ponds located within the boundaries of certain municipal districts of the Kursk region in the summer of 2019. The comparative fishery characteristics of water bodies based on a complex of morphometric, hydrochemical, hydrobiological and ichthyological indicators are presented. The question of the potential use of this group of water bodies for pasture aquaculture is considered based on the results of their bonitirovochnoy assessment for a number of fish-breeding indicators.

THE NEED TO EXPLORE SACRED PLACES AND SPACES IN SOCIAL LIFE

The article deals with the selection of the most appropriate methodology for the study of sacred spaces. The study of religious activities and sacred spaces has its own characteristics in relation to other studies in social geography. Its peculiarity is that it combines the use of methods of physical geography (in the study of sacred landscapes and sacred spaces) and social geography, psychology and philosophy (in the study of the geo-religious sphere). Sacred space can be studied in the process of studying as a phenomenon that has a territorial specificity and forms socio-cultural trends. In a general sense, a sacred space is a territory with special properties that performs a spiritual function. Properties can be religious, natural, or historical. Sacred spaces are most appropriate to study at the local level, within administrative districts or regions. In each city, district, or village, there are different religious sites or localities that people have given a mystical meaning to. It can be a lake, a mountain or a hill that stands out in the area, a forest with a special biocenosis, or just a part of a field or river that had a noticeable impact on the life of the local population. That is, both religious and natural and historical sacred spaces are best studied at the local level, the specific limits of which will be the boundaries of administrative districts.

Использование беспилотных летательных аппаратов для оценки интенсивности проявления опасных береговых процессов водоохраной зоны Цимлянского водохранилища

The water protection zone of the Tsimlyansk reservoir was chosen as the object of research. The subject of the study was the assessment of the intensity of manifestation of dangerous coastal processes of the reservoir: abrasion-latency, erosion activity. A method for monitoring erosion processes in water protection zones of water bodies using a software and hardware complex based on unmanned aerial vehicles and GIS technologies has been developed and tested. The optimal type of digital elevation models has been determined for assessing the density of the erosion net-work, determining the types of banks and the intensity of manifestation of abrasion and landslide processes, measuring the morphometric characteristics of erosional landforms. The types of erosional landforms were determined and the zoning of the territory of the water protection zone of the Tsimlyansk reservoir was carried out according to the density of the erosional dissection of the relief. Studies have shown that the predominant erosional forms of the relief of the water protection zone of the Tsimlyansk reservoir are ravines and gullies. The maximum average value of the density of the erosional network of the relief within the boundaries of the administrative districts of the reservoir coast falls on the Surovikinsky district. In the Kalachevsky district, the maximum value of the density of the erosion network is noted within the water protection zone of the Tsimlyansk reservoir.

Особенности динамики заболеваемости геморрагической лихорадкой с почечным синдромом в Республике Башкортостан

It was established that 17008 HFRS cases were reported in 53 (out of 54) administrative districts and 12 cities (out of 14) of the Republic of Bashkortostan in 2009-2018. The most intense epidemiological situation (a long-term incidence rate of 48,5 per 100 thousand of the population) was observed within the boundaries of the forest-steppe landscape zone, where. more than 86 % of all cases of infection are recorded of the Republic of Bashkortostan in 2009-2018. The share of infections among the urban population was 64.0 %, the rural one – 36.0 %. In the long-term aspect, according to the conditions of HFRS acquisition, short-term visits to the forest area prevailed – up to 80 %, in household settings – up to 14 % of all cases of the disease. Seasonal increases in the incidence of HFRS take place in May-June – up to 15 % and in September-December – over 46 % of the annual incidence. The presence of synchronicity in the dynamics of HFRS morbidity in rural and urban populations within the boundaries of the administrative district was detected. It has been substantiated that in order to reduce the level of HFRS morbidity among the rural and urban population, it is necessary to provide for an increase in the volume and frequency of preventive (anti-epidemic) measures in the vicinity of rural settlements, regional centers, urban-type settlements and large cities located near forests, within the boundaries of the entire area of the administrative district.

Colorado in context: Congressional redistricting and competing fairness criteria in Colorado

In this paper, we apply techniques of ensemble analysis to understand the political baseline for Congressional representation in Colorado. We generate a large random sample of reasonable redistricting plans and determine the partisan balance of each district using returns from state-wide elections in 2018, and analyze the 2011/2012 enacted districts in this context. Colorado recently adopted a new framework for redistricting, creating an independent commission to draw district boundaries, prohibiting partisan bias and incumbency considerations, requiring that political boundaries (such as counties) be preserved as much as possible, and also requiring that mapmakers maximize the number of competitive districts. We investigate the relationships between partisan outcomes, number of counties which are split, and number of competitive districts in a plan. This paper also features two novel improvements in methodology—a more rigorous statistical framework for understanding necessary sample size, and a weighted-graph method for generating random plans which split approximately as few counties as acceptable human-drawn maps.

1910년대 고 지형도를 이용한 행정리 경계 구축에 관한 실험적 연구

This study aims to establish administrative boundaries by utilizing digitalized old topographical map. Various problems have arisen due to unclear administrative boundaries. For example, there are various problems such as conflict amongst residents to occupy a larger area, unnecessary waste of administrative power, and difficulty in collecting various data for administrative units (farm area, statistical data, spatial analysis, living ara analysis). Therefore, in this study, an experimental study was conducted to establish administrative boundaries by using an old topographical map containing information on villages before administrative reform in 1914. As a result, the boundaries of towns, towns and villages were largely consistent. In order to divide the administrative boundaries based on the legal district boundaries, the administrative boundaries were established by referring to the contents of village introduction and natural boundaries (roads, rivers, mountain ranges, etc.) provided in towns and villages. However, there was a limit in establishing a precise boundary as it was not possible to secure a high-quality digitalized old topographical map.

Peningkatan Kualitas Data Bidang Tanah di Kantor Pertanahan Kota Administrasi Jakarta Selatan

The South Jakarta Administrative City Land Office is one of the cities targeted to be a city with complete land administration in 2020. The current condition of land parcel data demands an update, namely improving the quality of data from KW1 to KW6 towards KW1 valid. The purpose of this study is to determine the condition of land data quality in South Jakarta, the implementation of data quality improvement, as well as problems and solutions in implementing data quality improvement. The research method used is qualitative with a descriptive approach. The results showed that the condition of the data quality after the implementation of the improvement, namely KW1 increased from 86.45% to 87.01%. The roles of man, material, machine, and method have been fulfilled and the implementation of data quality improvement is not in accordance with the 2019 Complete City Guidelines in terms of territorial boundary inventory, and there are still obstacles in the implementation of improving the quality of land parcel data, namely the absence of buku tanah, surat ukur, and gambar ukur at the land office, the existence of regional division, the boundaries of the sub district are not yet certain, and the existence of land parcels that have been separated from mapping without being noticed by the office administrator.

Development of a methodology for allocating seed production zones based on established types of seed yield and soil-climatic zoning

The method of allocation of zones of seed production of agricultural plants depending on soil and climatic factors is developed on the basis of the established four types of seed yield: type I - high yield, high seed quality; type II - high yield, low seed quality; type III - low yield, high seed quality; IV - low yield, low seed quality. Data on crop types were plotted on a contour map of the studied administrative subject (region, territory, republic) with the designated boundaries of districts and soil-climatic zones, as a result, 4 possible zones of seed production were identified: 1- the zone of optimal seed production, in which the seed farms form the I type of crop; 2 - the zone of risky seed production (II type of crop); 3 - the zone of permissible seed production (III type of crop); 4 - the zone of unacceptable seed production (IV type of crop). The network of seed farms should be organized primarily in the areas of optimal seed production. When organizing the production of seed material in the zones of permissible seed production, it is necessary to increase the yield by improving agricultural technologies. In the zones of risky (II type of crop) and unacceptable (IV type of crop) seed production, it is not advisable to produce seed material.

A techno-economic analysis of an optimal self-sufficient district

Many cities and districts have announced that their ultimate goal is to be energy self-sufficient, but there are many technical and economic challenges that are required to be studied. The aim of this study is to find cost-optimal technical solutions for districts with high energy self-sufficiency rates that can cover their electricity demand. Two methods are applied, a rule-based method and an optimization method, to find the renewable energy system capacities for local centralized wind power, solar photovoltaic, battery, heat storage and heat pump in a district with a minimum life cycle cost. The Kalasatama district in Helsinki-Finland, is taken as a case study. The results show that the full energy self-sufficiency target requires very high investments in the renewable energy systems. For the studied case, reducing the self-sufficiency rate to 76% can bring down the life cycle cost by 66% and achieve a net-zero annual energy balance. It is economically and technically more feasible to aim achieving Positive Energy District or Net-Zero Energy District instead of full energy self-sufficiency. Based on the obtained results, the main investment should be made in wind power, due to its higher utilization rate around the year compared to solar photovoltaic. Investments in the expensive centralized battery storage sharply drops when the self-sufficiency rate is reduced from 100%. It is revealed that due to the high population density and limited availability of renewables, the physical boundary of a district may not fit the required renewable energy installations if high self-sufficiency is targeted. This will frequently lead to expanding the district boundary towards a virtual balancing boundary.

Algorithms for gerrymandering over graphs

We initiate the systematic algorithmic study for gerrymandering over graphs that was recently introduced by Cohen-Zemach, Lewenberg and Rosenschein. Namely, we study a strategic procedure for a political districting designer to draw electoral district boundaries so that a particular target candidate can win in an election. We focus on the existence of such a strategy under the plurality voting rule, and give interesting contrasts which classify easy and hard instances with respect to polynomial-time solvability. For example, we prove that the problem for trees is strongly NP-complete (thus unlikely to have a pseudo-polynomial-time algorithm), but has a pseudo-polynomial-time algorithm when the number of candidates is constant. Another example is to prove that the problem for complete graphs is NP-complete when the number of electoral districts is two, while is solvable in polynomial time when it is more than two.

Just Out of Reach? Unrestrained Supply, Constrained Demand, and Access to Effective Schools in and Around Detroit

Research concerning family preferences for schooling indicates that they value proximity to home as much as academic quality when choosing schools. However, preferences for proximity likely represent inability to access schools farther away from home, especially for disadvantaged students. I test whether distance and district boundaries constrain access to high-performing and effective schools for Detroit students where families choose between intradistrict, interdistrict, and charter schools, as well as an assigned school. I employ a unique data set that includes enrollment records, addresses, and commute times for Detroit residents regardless of where they attend school. Results show that disadvantaged students have little access to the highest quality schools available, specifically those outside Detroit. However, students attend higher performing schools within Detroit.

The Effect of a Death-in-Police-Custody Incident on Community Reliance on the Police

Examine whether a death-in-police-custody incident affected community reliance on the police, as measured through citizen calls requesting police assistance for non-criminal caretaking matters. This study used Baltimore Police Department (BPD) incident-level call data (2014–2017) concerning non-criminal caretaking matters (N = 234,781). Counts of non-criminal caretaking calls were aggregated by week for each of 279 unique sections derived from census-tract and police district boundaries. This study devised a Negative Community–Police Relationship Index Score that operationalized the expected risk of a negative community–police relationship for each of the sections. In April 2015, a Baltimore resident, Freddie Gray, died while in BPD custody. A Poisson regression model assessed whether this high-profile death-in-police-custody incident adversely affected the volume of non-criminal caretaking calls to the police and whether that effect was strongest in sections at a high risk of a negative community–police relationship. A falsification test used pocket-dialed emergency calls to verify that any observed trends were not the result of overall telephone usage. There was no statistical evidence that the death-in-police-custody incident produced any changes in community reliance on the police for non-criminal caretaking matters, even in high-risk sections. A supplemental analysis using calls for criminal matters yielded similar results. As the falsification test demonstrated, the observed trends were not the result of overall telephone usage. Despite a divisive death-in-police-custody incident, citizens were still willing to enlist police assistance. More broadly, the caretaking role of the police may be an important mechanism to strengthen community–police relations, particularly in marginalized neighborhoods vulnerable to strained community–police relations.

An evaluation of accessibility to preschool education institutions using geographic information systems

This study aims to evaluate current locations of preschool education institutions and suggest alternative spatial arrangements in the Afyonkarahisar province in Turkey, using heuristic location-allocation modelling approaches to improve overall spatial accessibility. The population totals were generated by supplying a unique code for each spatial unit. The census information was joined with a vector layer to transfer the population values to source units. In order to better predict the school age population distribution structure within the source zones, an intelligent areal interpolation approach was performed. The digital boundaries of the central district and villages of the Afyonkarahisar province were used as the source zones. The population surfaces of the source units were modelled by using the Corine Land use/cover (2018 dated) dataset and dasymetric mapping method. The gridded population surface model with population estimates and 1199 grid points across the province were used to model the preschool aged population in need of preschool educational services. With the current distribution of preschools in Afyonkarahisar, the preschool aged population would have to travel an average distance of 4629.49 m to access the closest preschool to them. The results of this study show that the provision of alternative preschool locations decreased the average travel distance from each residential home to each preschool by 626.82 m, thereby improving overall accessibility to preschools.

Partisan Politics and Public Education: Finding the Formula for (Electoral) Success

AbstractDo state politicians reward school districts that vote in favor of the party in power more than school districts that vote in favor of the opposing party? With large shares of money at the state level to transfer to local governments and the ability to target core voters, it would seem likely that politicians would take advantage of the ability to distribute education funds. However, in understanding how states distribute education funds, little emphasis is given to partisan influences, particularly the congruence between local school districts and the state level. To test this, I collected data at the precinct level within each state and, using mapping software, spatially joined precinct boundaries to school district boundaries. Once this relationship was established, I aggregated precinct-level information to school districts to understand the partisan voting patterns within each school district for elections from 2000 to 2010. This article finds evidence that funding formulas are susceptible to political influence and that parties are able to influence the geographic distribution of education funds to core voters.

Variability of Silvicultural Characteristics of Forest Shelterbelts in Krasnodar Krai

Modern shelterbelts of Krasnodar Krai do not fully protect arable land and often have different sanitary state. Under these conditions, the preservation of forest shelterbelts and their protective functions in the system of agroforestry and other complex continues to be relevant. The research was carried out in the main and auxiliary forest shelterbelts within the boundaries of the Ust-Labinsk district of Krasnodar Krai. The purpose of the research was to determine the ecological state of the forest shelterbelts by identifying their integrity and implementation of forestry and land reclamation assessment. In order to obtain more complete information on their state, a remote assessment of the tree canopy integrity of the shelterbelts was carried out. It follows from the remote assessment analysis that about 42.5 % of the area surveyed in the key plots of plantations has an average degree of integrity of tree canopy, high – 22.3 %, low and very low – 35.2 %. Lower indicators of the tree canopy integrity are observed in the auxiliary forest shelterbelts. The percentage participation of each group of forest shelterbelts allowed us to rank the ranges of integrity corresponding to a certain forestry and land reclamation assessment (units). The range of the tree canopy integrity from 0 to 25 % corresponds to grade 1, from 25 to 50 % – 2, from 50 to 70 % – 3, from 70 to 100 % – 4. Based on this, the shelterbelts were devided into 4 groups: norm, risk, crisis and disaster. The results of determining the ecological state of the forest shelterbelts by ground and remote methods in the Ust-Labinsk district of Krasnodar Krai showed that a significant part of the surveyed plantations has a dense structure and requires silvicultural care. The group of the forest shelterbelts “disaster” needs reconstruction. This will significantly improve the environmental condition and reclamation efficiency, as well as increase the service life of the systems of forest sheltebelts.

House Prices, Government Quality, and Voting Behavior

The hypothesis that minority voters act in their economic self-interest in supporting municipal candidates of their own race or ethnicity has been tested using changes in municipal spending and employment. However, governments affect voter welfare in many other ways, particularly in the provision of quality public services. This paper exploits a natural experiment arising in 1995 when Congress created an appointed financial control board for the District of Columbia and gave to it many of the powers previously reserved to the local elected government. The natural experiment sets up a triple-difference research design based on changes in property values across District neighborhoods and voting behavior compared to untreated adjacent areas across the District boundary in Maryland. We find that oversight by the control board raised annual appreciation rates in the District by 178 to 254 basis points during the period from 1995 to 2001. Furthermore, effects of the intervention were uniformly positive across areas of the District that varied dramatically in their support for the incumbent administration that lost its powers. This implies, after the fact, that the administration’s supporters had not voted in accord with economic self-interest.