Candidate Cities Research Articles

The Dynamic Consequences of State Building: Evidence from the French Revolution

How do radical reforms shape economic development over time? In 1790, the French Constituent Assembly overhauled the kingdom’s organization to establish new local capitals. In some departments, the choice of local capitals over rival candidate cities was plausibly exogenous. We study how changes in administrative presence affect state capacity and development in the ensuing decades. In the short run, administrative proximity increases taxation and investments in law enforcement. In the long run, capitals obtain more public goods and grow faster. Our results shed light on the dynamic impacts of state building following one of history’s most ambitious administrative reforms. (JEL D70, H41, H71, O18, O43)

Application of simultaneous evaluation of criteria and alternatives for prioritization of photovoltaic power plant location

AbstractThis research contributes to the ongoing efforts to transition towards clean and renewable energy sources by providing a practical framework for decision‐making in energy resource planning. Hence, a recently developed multi‐criteria decision making technique tool is proposed for simultaneous evaluation of criteria and alternatives (SECA) to find an optimal site for establishing photovoltaic power stations in Iran. The proposed SECA method provides a systematic and comprehensive approach to evaluating renewable energy resources, taking into account technical, economic, environmental, and social factors. The data required for this research has also been collected from the Global Solar Atlas as well as the Iran Meteoritical Organization. The results show that despite the main influence of the solar radiation factor, it should be noted that among all the climatic and environmental indicators, “cloudiness factor” by weight of 0.2339 and “annual temperature” by weight of 0.2320 have been selected as the most important criteria. It was also found that among the ten candidate cities, Zahedan (w = 0.8939), Shahrekord (w = 0.8341) and Kerman (w = 0.8112) have the highest potential for building a solar power plant. The results of the study highlight the potential for solar energy resources to meet Iran's electricity needs in a sustainable manner.

Evaluating Consolidation Centers of an Integrated Transportation Network under the Belt and Road Initiative

Following the Belt and Road, the Air Silk Road has also been proposed. The coordinated development of multiple transportation modes, including air, land, and water, will create a strong transportation force in node cities. However, the current insufficient supply of cargo in various regions and the lack of integration among different transportation modes result in low transportation efficiency, which in turn affects the further advancement of the Belt and Road. To investigate these issues and attempt to find a solution, we selected 44 candidate cities from the prefecture-level cities in China as nodes based on relevant government policies, and constructed an integrated transportation network. For each node city, we first calculated the values of six classical indicators and then used the CRITIC to assign weights to each indicator. Subsequently, we employed the TOPSIS method combined with Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) to compute the comprehensive score for each node city. Based on the spatial layout and government policies under the BRI, eight cities, including Wuhan, Chongqing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Lianyungang, Hefei, and Dalian, were finally recommended as the consolidation centers of the integrated transportation network. It is hoped that the results of this analysis can provide some insights for the government to outline and build the consolidation centers of the integrated transportation network composed of railway, air, highway, and water routes, which in turn can offer insights for elevating the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to a new level.

Research and innovation paving the way for climate neutrality in urban transport: Analysis of 362 cities on their journey to zero emissions

The EU Mission on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities is an ambitious initiative aiming to involve a wide range of stakeholders and deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030. We analysed the information submitted in the expressions of interest by 362 candidate cities. The majority of the cities’ strategies for climate neutrality include urban transport as a main sector and combine the introduction of new technologies with the promotion of public transport and active mobility. We combined the information from the EU Mission candidate cities with data from the CORDIS and TRIMIS databases, and applied a clustering algorithm to measure proximity to foci of H2020 funding. Our results suggest that preparedness for the EU Mission is correlated with research and innovation activities on transport and mobility. Horizon 2020 activities specific to transport and mobility significantly increased the likelihood of a city to be a candidate. Among the various transport technology research pathways, smart mobility appears to have a major role in the development of solutions for climate neutrality.

Simultaneous evaluation of criteria and alternatives method-based site selection for solar hydrogen production plant in Inner Mongolia, China

In the context of achieving carbon neutrality, China's demand for renewable energy continues to grow, with the development of solar energy attracting widespread attention. Aiming at the problem that solar energy is not accessible at all times and the storage of excess power, this paper proposes a model for siting a solar hydrogen plant in Inner Mongolia based on Simultaneous Evaluation of Criteria and Alternatives (SECA). Firstly, considering the uniqueness of solar hydrogen production projects (SHPPs), we incorporate the criteria of hydrogen production capacity and local finance into the siting decision model. Secondly, the SECA method is employed to construct a nonlinear multi-objective optimization model, facilitating the direct determination of criterion weights and enhancing decision-making efficiency. Third, the convergence change of the coefficient β in the SECA method is used to rank the candidate cities by solving the optimization model to produce stable results. Finally, this study verifies the validity of the model used through sensitivity and comparative analyses. The results show that Chifeng is the best location for solar hydrogen production considering the three most important factors are hydrogen production capacity (11.7%), average humidity (12.4%) and average temperature (14.46%).

The application of multi factor method in the site selection of reserve warehouse for nuclear and radiation emergency

This article explains the power generation of civilian nuclear power plants and the development trend of nuclear technology utilization. The construction of regional nuclear and radiation emergency monitoring material reserve warehouse (hereinafter referred to as the “reserve warehouse”) can ensure nuclear and radiation safety. According to the requirements for emergency monitoring of nuclear accidents and radiation accidents, the article summarizes several factors for site selection. The article conducts research on candidate locations for reserve warehouse and emergency monitoring demand location in China (hereinafter referred to as the “demand locations”). The multi factor method was applied to the location selection of reserve warehouses, and the following conclusions were obtained: (1) The multi factor method is feasible. It has high computational accuracy and fast speed. The site selection model has a significant optimization effect on the location of reserve warehouses. (2) The site selection model proves that the location of reserve warehouses need to consider multiple factors. When the number of reserves is 3–8, about 1–2 cities which is the location of nuclear power plants are selected as candidate cities. (3) When the number of reserve warehouse is 8, the maximum distance is less than 2400 km, meeting the distance limit set for nuclear and radiation emergency monitoring. Considering comprehensive road conditions and other factors, China needs to establish at least 5 reserve warehouses to achieve an emergency ideal situation with a maximum distance of 1600 km.

Olympic Agenda 2020 and Paris 2024: Driving Change or Rhetoric as Usual?

Abstract Protests over sustainability concerns attached to hosting the Olympic Games have resulted in several bid withdrawals and a low number of candidate cities willing to host the most recent editions. Worried about the future, the International Olympic Committee adopted the Olympic Agenda 2020, promising to adapt the event to contemporary sustainability paradigms. Some of its urban-related reforms have already impacted recently hosted Games and are impacting the planning for those to come. The IOC claims that Paris 2024 will be the first Games to be fully aligned with the Agenda. This article addresses the urban preparations for Paris 2024 and assesses their alignment with the new reforms. The objective is to identify difficulties in the implementation of the Agenda and to outline future research that can, potentially, enhance its efficiency. Results reveal Paris 2024 is innovative but certain features are difficult to implement, leaving room to improve the Agenda.

Key dimensions of cities’ engagement in the transition to climate neutrality

Urbanization and the concentration of energy-consuming economic activities make cities responsible for more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, cities are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change impacts. The European Cities Mission launched a call in September 2021 to set out on a path towards “100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030”. A very large and diverse sample of 344 candidate cities in 35 countries (a subset of the 362 considered eligible to participate in the Cities Mission) was used to conduct this timely research aimed at identifying the main dimensions on which cities are working to achieve a smart and sustainable transition.The research focused on five main dimensions: local climate planning, climate emergency declarations, participation in networks, international projects and competitions. Results show that only 20 (5.8%) cities have no experience in any of them, while there are 18 (5.2%) cities that have in their background activities that fall under all dimensions. Moreover, networking is the most important dimension, among the five analysed, for cities applying for this Mission, involving 309 cities (approximately 90% of the sample). This is followed by local climate planning, involving 275 cities (80%) and city participation in international projects, involving 152 cities (44%). Cities that have declared a climate emergency are less than a fifth of the sample and are very unevenly distributed in only 37.1% of the countries represented (interestingly, all the UK cities in the sample). Similarly, only 49 cities (14.2%) have received international awards.The results provide insights into the main efforts currently being made by cities to engage in the transition to climate neutrality and may be useful to practitioners, scholars and policy-makers at all levels to improve their knowledge of the steps they need to take to support this process and amplify its scope.

Does culture have transformative power to make the Olympic Games sustainable?

Public aspirations for more sustainable mega-projects not only ensuring economic returns but also comprehensive local legacies have increased in recent years. The Olympic Games in particular have been criticized as commercial ventures lacking in proportional impacts for local communities, while largely financed by public funds. With associated corruption and gentrification concerns, such projects met with increased opposition. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), struggling to attract candidate cities, adapted its strategies and frameworks, while host cities’ priorities were better heeded. Cultural policy, associated with transformative urban powers since the 1990s, became instrumental to sustainable legacies. This article explores the increased use of cultural value, from heritage to creation, as part of the Olympic Games, to reach more sustainable cultural, socio-economic, political, and environmental objectives. Can cultural planning and programming (notably Cultural Olympiads) help provide a more sustainable legacy to the redeveloped areas and their communities? Can culture also impact the Olympic project through its use of sustainable management methods (consultation, participation, co-creation, etc.)? After discussing evolving theories and practices around sustainability, legacy, and cultural policy in the Olympic context, this article analyzes the cases of London 2012 and Paris 2024 and their Athletes’ village areas (Stratford and Plaine Commune).

The Olympic Village and the Olympic Urbanism: Perception and Expectations of Olympic Specialists

The editions of the Olympic Games (OG) created a major urban transformation, which allowed for a new critical perspective on the new urban dimension of the Mega-Event, especially in the construction of the three main physical elements built: the athletics stadium, the swimming pool facilities and, above all, the “Olympic Village”. The study analyses the Winter and Summer Olympic Villages (OV) in a general way with a particular focus on the relationship between the OV and the urban fabric. The interdependence between the city and the OG has evolved through new models of development of the Olympic event that has marked the importance of the OV in the processes of city transformation. The lack of previous studies allows us to affirm the importance of the study for the academic debate on the future of the OV. The study will use quantitative analysis to analyse the different variables and responses of the Olympic specialists who participated in the sample. The study will make it possible to observe the perceptions and expectations of the interviewees through statistical analysis. Moreover, considering that only one symposium was organised in the Olympic history in 1996, the following survey is a solid basis for designing future OV in the candidate cities. The organisation of a new symposium almost thirty years after the 1996 one is of fundamental importance to discuss the territorial impact, organisational models, heritage, infrastructure, participation, housing, social change and territorial transformations.

A Multicriteria Decision Framework for Solar Power Plant Location Selection Problem with Pythagorean Fuzzy Data: A Case Study on Green Energy in Turkey

Turkey is one of the most suitable countries for solar power plants, owing to its ideal location in terms of receiving solar radiation; accordingly, plans are in place to expand its solar power plant system to fulfill the increasing energy demand. In this study, a combination of multicriteria decision-making and fuzzy logic was used to evaluate potential locations (cities in southern Turkey) to install new solar power plants subject to different criteria of an uncertain nature. The proposed methodology has several attractive features, which are described throughout this study. The criteria were selected based on the literature and the opinions of experts. In addition, a new criterion (capacity of existing solar power plants) was added to achieve more precise results. Ten criteria and eighteen cities were selected to form the decision matrix for the problem. First, the weight of each criterion was computed by stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA). Then, the TOPSIS approach was extended to the Pythagorean fuzzy form in ranking the locations of the decision matrix as a new solution procedure. The results show that the best candidate city to install a new solar power plant is Antalya, followed by Karaman and Malatya as the second and third best candidates, respectively. Finally, to measure the impact of the changes in the weight of the criteria, a sensitivity analysis was conducted. Multiple scenarios were considered, and the results indicated that Antalya was the best alternative in most of the scenarios.

SELECTION OF LOGISTICS CENTRES LOCATION ON CHINA-EUROPE TRANSPORT CORRIDOR

The issue of accelerating container transportation on China-Europe corridor has been on the agenda for a long time, and many decisions have been made in this vein. However, in this paper, in addition to the issue of speeding up China-Europe route transportation, the development of regional transport infrastructure is designated as an equally important factor. One of the main elements of the transport infrastructure is logistics centers. In this work, the list of candidate cities for the construction of a logistics center was processed using the ArcGIS Network Analyst technical package, the results were analyzed and the most stable model was identified.

The Dialogue concerning the Construction of the Facilities and Nature Conservation for Banff as the Candidate City for XI Olympic Winter Games

The Dialogue concerning the Construction of the Facilities and Nature Conservation for Banff as the Candidate City for XI Olympic Winter Games

The Olympic Effect in strategic planning: insights from candidate cities

ABSTRACT Strategic planning was incorporated into urban planning processes towards the end of the twentieth century. It was propelled by the ‘Barcelona model’, intrinsically related with the hosting of the 1992 Summer Olympics. Since then, the Olympic Games have been increasingly seen as powerful tools to catalyse development. They are perceived as provoking an Olympic Effect that has been characterized in literature as an intensified impact of development policies when implemented in the context of the event. Furthermore, the catalytic character of the Games and its associated city-branding potential are often seen as the primary reasons why cities bid for hosting it. This paper argues that the definition of Olympic Effect shall be established in strategic planning practices before both the catalytic effect on development projects and the augmented impact in territories and communities. For that, candidatures of cities bidding to host the Games are qualitatively analysed. The results contribute to the recognition of the increased presence of a strategic vision in Olympic candidatures, the characterization of strategic planning in the context of the Olympic Games, the identification of its role in the city’s overall strategic planning processes, and the definition of the Olympic Effect as a resource for urban strategic planning.

An Experimental Factor Analysis Study Using SAW and TOPSIS to Select and Rank Organic Agriculture Cities in Turkey

The agriculture sector supports Turkey’s GDP portfolio economically and helps establish a sustainable labor force. Turkey has certain competitive advantages in terms of the organic production of agricultural goods like figs and hazelnuts. We conduct a factor analysis using Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods combined with a 3-level set (export volume, export value, and adequacy rate) to rank 32 candidate cities of Turkey where organic agriculture activities should be given more emphasis to support overall production and export rates. 18 different sets of importance values were used for this purpose and their combinatorial effects on candidate cities were analyzed. The factor analysis results show that the cities Izmir, Aydin, Adiyaman, Gaziantep, Agri, Mus, and Van have the highest potentials among all Turkish cities in both methods, while Sanliurfa also shows high potential for organic agriculture in the TOPSIS method.

On the effects of aggregation strategies for different groups of users in venue recommendation

Suggesting new venues to be visited by a user in a specific city remains an interesting but challenging problem, partly because of the inherent high sparsity of the data available in location-based social networks (LSBNs). At the same time, in traditional recommender systems, in order to improve their performance in these sparse situations, different techniques have been proposed mainly by augmenting and aggregating the data available in different domains. In this paper, we address the problem of venue recommendation from a novel perspective: we propose two strategies to select a set of candidate cities in order to use their information when performing recommendations for the users in a specific (target) city. In this context, we categorize users into two different groups (tourists and locals) according to their movement patterns and analyze the potential biases in the recommendations received by each of these groups. We provide an experimental comparison of several recommendation algorithms in a temporal split, where we analyze two strategies to select cities and augment the available data: based on the number of interactions and based on the distance with respect to the target city. Our results show that, in general, extending the available data by proximity increases the performance of the majority of the tested recommenders in terms of relevance and coverage, with almost no change in novelty and diversity. We have found that those users belonging to the tourist group tend to obtain better results in terms of relevance. Furthermore, in general, tourists consistently exhibit different performance by some families of recommenders for other evaluation dimensions, evidencing a popularity bias in user behavior and raising potential fairness issues regarding the quality of the received recommendations. We investigate these aspects and provide methods to better understand the problem. We expect these results could provide readers with an overall picture of what can be achieved in a real-world environment.

Dry Port-Seaport Logistics Network Construction under the Belt and Road Initiative: A Case of Shandong Province in China

In recent years, China’s dry ports have entered into a period of rapid development, especially driven by the Belt and Road initiative (BRI). This initiative not only provides valuable opportunities, but also intensifies fierce competition between ports. In order to earn more profits and maintain an advantageous position, dry ports generally tend to rely on seaports to increase competitiveness and attract more goods, and seaports are also willing to cooperate with dry ports to expand their business. As a large coastal province in China, Shandong Province has good maritime resources. Because of the fierce competition among seaports inside and outside Shandong Province, port operators should make good use of the opportunity offered by BRI to make connections with the inland cities through the dry port-seaport logistics network and enhance the competitiveness. In order to take an active part in the process of the BRI, forming a dry port-seaport logistics network is a win-win strategy for Shandong province. The research first analyzes the impact of the Belt and Road initiative on ports of Shandong and its development, then uses complex network theory and TOPSIS method to select dry port candidate cities from BRI’s important transportation nodes. After considering economic benefits, carbon emissions and construction costs, a multi-objective optimization model is established with a construction cost preference coefficient. Then the NSGA-II algorithm is used to solve the realistic problem. The study finds that when the construction cost increases, the transportation cost and carbon emission cost will decrease, which indicates that the dry port-seaport logistics network established under the BRI can reduce the cost of logistics transportation and environmental pollution.

What matters in the choice of a national capital location in Chinese history: an empirical analysis based on quantitative economic history

ABSTRACT This study surveys theoretical hypotheses for the choice of Chinese capital locations over 2240 years, examines the probability of 80 candidate cities and finds that relative economic security, the cultural tradition of the emperor’s first seat of power, long-term climate change, political unity, nomadic nature, etc. matter in the choice of Chinese capital location. This finding is robust across different approaches, time periods and dynasties. This study confirms the validity of theoretical hypotheses in both China and the West, deepening our understanding of the wisdom of capital location and supplying missing aspects of modern theories of choice of capital location.

Electrical power generation through concentrated solar technology for the southern cities of Iraq

With a continuing mismatch between generating capacity and demand requirements, Iraqi cities are still enduring scheduled power outages. In this work, concentrated solar power (CSP) technology is proposed and designed for Iraqi cities to inject power into distribution networks with the objective of boosting the generating power capacity. Since CSP systems require a preliminary study of the direct normal irradiance (DNI), analyses of monthly data is carried out for each of the candidate cities. This is followed by determination of the amount of solar irradiance that falls on a titled collector per month considering the effects of reflection and diffusion. Finally, a thermal power plant is proposed and simulated using the system advisory model (SAM) per city. Results presented show an encouraging number of metrics and confirm the feasibility of such a plant in southern Iraq. The levelised cost of electricity and capacity factor shows a considerable decrease and increase respectively, when the plant is backed up by a fossil fuel steam cycle under circumstances when a plant loses over 80% of the MW capacity due to drop in solar irradiance. To provide a comparision platform, for each city, a photovolitaic (PV) plant is designed with an indentical electric capacity to that of the CSP plant. Findings from this work confirm that CSP plants can provide a suitstanable and enviroemntl friendly solution to electrical power shortages in the country compared to the current PV trends.

European Capital of Culture 2023 - Comparative Analysis of the Hungarian Candidate Cities

2023-ban magyar város lesz Európa Kulturális Fővárosa. A programsorozat az európai kultúra sokszínűségét hivatott bemutatni, tehát középpontjában a városok kulturális értékei, kulturális dimenziói állnak. A címért mindig városok sora versenyezik pályázataikat benyújtva egy kiválasztási eljárás keretében. Győr, Veszprém és Debrecen voltak a legesélyesebb pályázók, e városok jutottak a kiválasztási eljárás második fordulójába. Bár a figyelem nagy része a projektévben szervezett kulturális programokra irányul, a pályázati fázis is izgalmas szakasza a projektnek, hiszen ekkor a pályázó városok számot adnak terveikről, a kultúra terén tervezett fejlesztési elképzeléseikről, kulturális potenciáljukról. A tanulmányban arra törekszünk, hogy a tárgyalt projekt pályázati ciklusának második fordulójába jutott három magyar város terveit ütköztessük, elemezzük, feltárva ily módon a kiemelkedő kulturális ambíciókkal bíró magyar városok kultúrával kapcsolatos vízióit, erősségeit, gyengeségeit, főképpen a számokban kifejezhető tényezők mentén. Ma már tudjuk, hogy Veszprém nyert, ugyanakkor a kvantitatív adatok alapján mi a másik két várost láttuk esélyesebbnek a győzelemre. Azonban számos kvalitatív és szubjektív tényező mentén Veszprém városa bizonyult jobbnak a kiválasztási procedúra során. Természetesen nem kívánjuk felülbírálni a döntést, csupán egy elemzési keretet kívánunk felvázolni a kulturálisan ambiciózus magyar városaink kulturális összehasonlításához.