Regional Development Policy Research Articles

Economic Resilience and Sustainable Finance Path to Development and Convergence in Romanian Counties

Economic resilience and sustainable finance are two interlinked and crucial issues for development and convergence in Romania’s counties increasing cohesion. These issues can contribute to sustainable and balanced growth of local and regional economies and to the reduction of inequalities in regional development. Economic resilience in counties refers to their capacity to adapt and survive in the face of unforeseen economic shocks or challenges, and sustainable finance refers to ensuring responsible management of financial resources to support long-term development and protect the environment. Identifying and understanding the significant variations in economic resilience and sustainable financing between counties is essential for the formulation of regional development policies and strategies. These variations provide valuable information about the vulnerabilities and opportunities of individual counties and guide resource allocation and investment decisions. The research provides new data and relevant information on the significant variations among counties in economic resilience and sustainable financing, using a Markov transition probability matrix and exploratory–visual method. This study on Romanian counties aims to provide valuable information for the formulation of public policies to support balanced economic development across the country. The results showed that economic diversification is essential to increase the resilience of the economy to shocks and fluctuations. Counties that have a diversified economic structure, with multiple sources of income and economic activities, are less vulnerable to the negative impact of economic or natural events. Governance and political stability are key factors in creating a favorable environment for investment and economic development. Well-managed government policies can help maintain macroeconomic stability and increase the resilience of the economy to external fluctuations.

Approaches to providing coordination of the regional development policy regarding the restoration of the territories damaged during the course of the war

The article substantiates approaches to ensuring the coordination of regional development policy regarding the restoration of war-damaged territories. It is emphasized that the key to solving regional problems is ensuring the coordination of regional development policy, which aims to reduce disparities in the development of settlements and regions, this situation creates a challenge in the application of an approach to regional development focused on local needs for recovery. It was noted that today the priorities for ensuring the coordination of regional development policy are the support of specific reconstruction projects in territorial communities and the updating of the State Strategy for Regional Development, which should be based on five key priorities: strategic planning and project management; investments and interaction with donors; anti-corruption activity; digitization and management based on open data; urban planning.
 It was noted that the differentiated geographical impact of the war further exacerbated the differences of the regions in terms of their development opportunities and the necessary state support. For the policy of regional development, which aims to reduce disparities in the development of settlements and regions, this situation creates a challenge in the application of an approach to regional development focused on local needs. Today, the simple differentiation of regions into two groups based on the relative indicator of gross domestic product per capita, which is used by the State Fund for Regional Development, is no longer enough, but a much more detailed approach to the RDP that takes into account local needs and is based on the definition and support of development initiatives implemented at the local and regional levels must be developed.
 It is noted that although some tools and approaches to the policy of regional development are already included in the legislation, the system of vertical coordination, i.e. multi-level management with wide use of public participation in decision-making regarding the further development of administrative-territorial units, still remains quite relevant and needs adaptation to ensure greater flexibility and initiative from below.

Forecasting spring maize yield using vegetation indices and crop phenology metrics from UAV observations

AbstractEarly and accurate prediction and simulation of grain crop yield can help maximize the revision and development of regional food policy, which is crucial for ensuring national food security. The development of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology is gradually gaining an advantage over satellite remote sensing at the field scale. In this study, we predicted maize yield using canopy vegetation indices (VIs) and crop phenology metrics obtained through UAV with ordinary least squares (OLS), stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) and gradient‐boosted regression tree (GBRT). The results reveal that the VIs extracted from UAV imagery had a high correlation with yield (R = 0.92), facilitating crop yield estimation. Additionally, coupling crop phenology significantly improved the prediction accuracy of SMLR, with the highest R2 and lowest RMSE of 0.894, 1.238 × 103 kg ha−1, respectively. But, the enhancement of GBRT by this method was slender. Its simulation outperformed OLS and SMLR with dramatic R2, RMSE, and MAE of 0.892, 1.189 × 103 kg ha−1, and 9.150 × 102 kg ha−1, respectively. Moreover, the blister stage was deemed the optimal stage for maize yield prediction with an accuracy rate exceeding 81%. These demonstrated the feasibility of using UAV images to predict crop yields, providing an important reference at the field scale.

Characteristics of the Evolution of China’s Regional Economic Differences Based on the Perspective of Urban Agglomerations

Urban agglomerations are becoming an important spatial carrier for China’s industrialisation and new-type urbanisation, and an important engine to drive the national economic development, and regional economic differences based on urban agglomerations have also become a new feature of China’s regional differences in the new period. Based on the urban agglomeration perspective, we quantitatively measure China’s regional economic differences from 2001 to 2020 through the two-stage nested decomposition method of the Theil Index, and analyse the evolutionary characteristics of the economic differences within the 19 urban agglomerations in the country by decomposing them into four major regions: East, Central, West and Northeast, and the differences between the urban agglomerations within the regions and the economic differences within the urban agglomerations. The study found that: (1) Overall the overall differences of the region with urban agglomerations as the core were gradually shrinking. In terms of the trend of changes in the differences at all levels, the economic differences between regions and within urban agglomerations were significantly reduced, and the changes in the economic differences between urban agglomerations were not obvious. In terms of contribution rate, the contribution rate of intra-urban agglomeration differences had always remained at a high level, reaching about half of the overall economic differences in the country, and was the primary contributing factor to the overall economic differences. (2) In terms of absolute differences, the economic differences among urban agglomerations in the four regions showed a clear pattern of “East > West > Central ≈ Northeast”. (3) The intra-cluster economic differences of each urban agglomeration in 20 years were at different levels and showed a differentiated trend of evolution, and the areas with relatively more prominent intra-cluster economic differences were the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration in the east, and the Lan-xi urban agglomeration and the North Slope of Tianshan Mountain urban agglomeration in the northwestern region. The economic differences of urban agglomerations are the result of a variety of factors, and the reasons for the formation of regional economic differences are analysed from the factors of economic location, national regional development policies, human resource factors and high-speed traffic differences within the urban agglomerations.

Graph-Based Deep Learning Model for Forecasting Chloride Concentration in Urban Streams to Protect Salt-Vulnerable Areas

In cold-climate regions, road salt is used as a deicer for winter road maintenance. The applied road salt melts ice and snow on roads and can be washed off through storm sewer systems into nearby urban streams, harming the freshwater ecosystem. Therefore, aiming to develop a precise and accurate model to determine future chloride concentration in the Credit River in Ontario, Canada, the present work makes use of a “Graph Neural Network”–“Sample and Aggregate” (GNN-SAGE). The proposed GNN-SAGE is compared to other models, including a Deep Neural Network-based transformer (DNN-Transformer) and a benchmarking persistence model for a 6 h forecasting horizon. The proposed GNN-SAGE surpassed both the benchmarking persistence model and the DNN-Transformer model, achieving RMSE and R2 values of 51.16 ppb and 0.88, respectively. Additionally, a SHAP analysis provides insight into the variables that influence the model’s forecasting, showing the impact of the spatiotemporal neighboring data from the network and the seasonality variables on the model’s result. The GNN-SAGE model shows potential for use in the real-time forecasting of water quality in urban streams, aiding in the development of regulatory policies to protect vulnerable freshwater ecosystems in urban areas.

The multilevel governance of financial instruments in regional development policy: the case of Poland

PurposeThe aim of this article is to investigate how the use of financial instruments influences the development of Regional Development Funds (RFR) in Poland and to assess the maturity and coherence of the regional development financing system in this country.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology is based on the multilevel governance literature and on data collected during 26 in-depth interviews in regional, national and international institutions.FindingsThe authors demonstrate that the use of financial instruments stimulates new kinds of cooperation between several institutions and contributes to the establishment of RFR. The authors also show that the Polish regional financing system is still developing and formulate recommendations about necessary improvements.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this article, in addition to taking up a new, relevant topic for the regional development policy in countries benefiting from European Union (EU) cohesion policy, is the application of the multilevel governance (MLG) concept to explain the development of the Polish regional development financing system. Moreover, the significant added value of this study comes from the use of data collected during 26 in-depth interviews (IDI) in regional, national and international institutions on the use of repayable instruments in regional development policy.

Analysis of Leading Sector Basic Sectors and Economic Sector Shifts in the Mamminasata Area

Economic growth is a crucial and strategic issue in regional and regional development planning. Economic growth is a central issue in regional and regional development, as stated in the Development Nawacita in the United Indonesian government under the leadership of Jokowi and Jusuf Kalla. In the concept of Nawacita, National development is oriented towards the development of villages to achieve equity and balanced regional growth. Nevertheless, a study is needed to find out which economic sectors are superior in the Mamminasata region, considering that the economic sectors in several regions do not yet have competitive advantages. Based on the phenomena faced by the regional government, this study chooses to examine the “Basic Leading Sector Analysis and Economic Sector Shifts in the Mamminasata Region by using descriptive quantitative and qualitative methods. The purpose of this study is to examine the leading sectors of regional development and economic growth (Maminasata) and explain regional development strategies and policies in South Sulawesi. The results of the study show that there are regencies and cities in the Mamminasata Region that have only three leading sectors and Makassar City has 15 leading sectors, which in general have regional competitiveness for themselves and the region or the province of South Sulawesi. In general, the economic sector in the region has low competitiveness and a constant rate of economic growth.

우리나라 지방자치단체 운영성과 제고방안에 관한 연구

In order to improve more reasonably and productively in a series of administrative operations and policy processes in Korean local governments, systematic operational performance evaluation of administrative work execution results was recognized as an important management function. It will be possible to promote the development of local administration and enhance administrative autonomy and accountability by checking the productivity of local governments' administrative operations and conducting a rigorous and accurate evaluation of leadership and administrative performance. In this context, this study will review the evaluation areas and measurement indicators of local government operation performance for local government evaluation, extract the determinants of local government evaluation through a review of previous studies, present a performance evaluation model and seek policy directions to improve operational performance. This study on efficient local government operation plans and the role and leadership direction of local government heads can recognize their importance from a political, social, economic, and customer (resident)-oriented perspective. Only when the evaluation system for local government's operational performance is established and utilized under mutual connection with local residents will the local government increase its efforts to improve the quality of life and maximize residents' satisfaction, and regional development policies can also be implemented from a long-term perspective.

Optimizing Regional Development Policies through the RT Keren Program to Support Community Empowerment (Study in Blitar City)

This study aims to identify and analyze the optimization of regional development policies through the RT Keren program to support community empowerment in Blitar City. This optimization is related to applying transformative ideas and answers to sustainable development programs or SDGs. The research method used is descriptive with a qualitative approach. The results show that government development policies involving community participation through a community empowerment approach positively impact people's lives by providing training and improving the community's economy. Development policy through the minor structure in the region, namely the RT, is a form of policy that impacts all elements of society, such as improving the quality of community life through community groups (POKMAS). Hence, this research will present empirical evidence about the indicators of transformative leadership within community empowerment initiatives while also examining the efficacy of regional development policies outlined in the vision of Blitar City, specifically the Blitar Keren initiative. One notable manifestation of this vision is the RT Keren program.

Scheme simulation and predictive analysis of water environment carrying capacity in Shanxi Province based on system dynamics and DPSIR model

A key influence factor of sustainable regional development is the water environment carrying capacity (WECC), which is a prerequisite for ecological security and harmonious regional development. Utilizing the benefits of the dynamic analysis of system dynamics (SD) and the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework system, we constructed a water environment carrying capacity-system dynamics (WECC-SD) model and evaluation index system for Shanxi Province. Five possible future development schemes were designed to predict the changes in WECC from 2020 to 2030. Further, we analyzed the system coordination with the coupling coordination degree model. The results manifest that the comprehensive ranking of WECC under different schemes is: comprehensive scheme > water environment protection scheme > water conservation scheme > status quo scheme > economic development scheme. The economic development scheme performs the worst in WECC and coupling coordination performance, the water conservation and water environment protection schemes can both improve WECC to varying degrees but promote coordinated system development to a very limited extent, the comprehensive scheme can significantly improve WECC and system coordination and is the best strategy to realize the coordinated and steady development of regional economic activities and the water environment. In future development, economic development should be moderated on the premise that the quality of the water environment will gradually enhance and the consumption of water resources will continue to decline, so that a benign relationship between population – economy – water resources – water environment can be created and a steady increase in the level of coordinated regional development can be promoted. The study reveals complex impact relationships within the WECC system and informs the development of future regional planning and environmental policy.

Regional Development Planning and Policy in the Aspects of Vulnerability and Disaster Resilient Cities: A Review

Disaster management in the world has undergone a paradigm change that is from responsive to preventive, from sectoral to multi-sector, from government responsibility solely to joint responsibility, centralization to decentralization and from emergency response to disaster risk reduction. Based on 6 directives of the President of the Republic of Indonesia delivered during the Rakornas PB (Disaster Management) at surabaya, February 2, 2019 one of which is "Regional development planning must be based on aspects of DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction)". Disaster risk-based regional development planning aims to reduce the impact of disaster risk including, threats, vulnerabilities, and capacity. Vulnerability assessment in areas that have the potential to experience disaster events is one of the important factors that must be reviewed in disaster mitigation efforts. Vulnerability assessment with the concept of data from wisdom allows local policymakers to recognize their specific situation in the broader context of a similar situation, providing regional perspectives and important connections between regions. Based on the efforts that have been integrated between the program into city spatial planning, it is hoped that it can increase the resilience of the City in facing disasters and adapt to climate change. Abstrak: Penanggulangan bencana di dunia telah mengalami perubahan paradigma yaitu dari responsif menjadi preventif, dari sektoral menjadi multi sektor, dari tanggung jawab pemerintah semata menjadi tanggung jawab bersama, sentralisasi menjadi desentralisasi dan dari tanggap darurat menjadi pengurangan risiko bencana. Berdasarkan 6 arahan Presiden Republik Indonesia yang disampaikan pada saat Rakornas PB (Penanggulangan Bencana) di surabaya, 2 Februari 2019 salah satunya adalah "Perencanaan pembangunan daerah harus berbasis pada aspek PRB (Pengurangan Resiko Bencana)". Perencanaan pembangunan daerah berbasis risiko bencana bertujuan untuk mengurangi dampak risiko bencana yang meliputi, ancaman, kerentanan, dan kapasitas. Penilaian kerentanan pada wilayah yang berpotensi mengalami kejadian bencana merupakan salah satu faktor penting yang harus dikaji dalam upaya mitigasi bencana. Penilaian kerentanan dengan konsep data dari kearifan memungkinkan para pembuat kebijakan lokal untuk mengenali situasi spesifik mereka dalam konteks yang lebih luas dari situasi yang sama, memberikan perspektif regional dan hubungan penting antar wilayah. Berdasarkan upaya yang telah diintegrasikan antara program tersebut ke dalam perencanaan tata ruang kota, diharapkan dapat meningkatkan ketangguhan Kota dalam menghadapi bencana dan beradaptasi terhadap perubahan iklim.

Ka mua, ka muri (looking backwards into the future): investigating government’s solutions to addressing uneven regional development in New Zealand/Aotearoa

ABSTRACT This article examines New Zealand’s historical, geographical, political, and economic-driven regional disparities and evaluates successive government policies aiming to address these inequities. By utilising the Māori proverb ‘ka mua ka muri’ for discourse analysis, we chronologically categorise regional development policies into three periods: pre-neoliberal reform, post-reform until 2017, and recent government investments in regions. Our study highlights recurring policy failures due to factors such as short-term political vision, and an emphasis on competitive over comparative advantages in resource allocation. To rectify past shortcomings, we propose a dual framework grounded in Universalism and Particularism, suggesting a national spatial strategy paired with tailored regional development policies.

Land Use and Land Cover Classification in the Northern Region of Mozambique Based on Landsat Time Series and Machine Learning

Accurate land use and land cover (LULC) mapping is essential for scientific and decision-making purposes. The objective of this paper was to map LULC classes in the northern region of Mozambique between 2011 and 2020 based on Landsat time series processed by the Random Forest classifier in the Google Earth Engine platform. The feature selection method was used to reduce redundant data. The final maps comprised five LULC classes (non-vegetated areas, built-up areas, croplands, open evergreen and deciduous forests, and dense vegetation) with an overall accuracy ranging from 80.5% to 88.7%. LULC change detection between 2011 and 2020 revealed that non-vegetated areas had increased by 0.7%, built-up by 2.0%, and dense vegetation by 1.3%. On the other hand, open evergreen and deciduous forests had decreased by 4.1% and croplands by 0.01%. The approach used in this paper improves the current systematic mapping approach in Mozambique by minimizing the methodological gaps and reducing the temporal amplitude, thus supporting regional territorial development policies.

Human Resources in Policy Documents

It is known that there is a strong link between social development and human resources policy. While the human resources policy covers the human resources of an organization in the micro sense, it covers the human resources of the nations in the macro sense. Achieving this goal will make it a center of attraction for qualified human resources; harmonious execution of growth, development, regional development and spatial development policies becomes more important than before. It is also aimed to strengthen the human resources management strategies and practices of administrations and organizations. Quantitative development will provide qualitative depth education; It is seen as a life-long process that accepts it as an investment in our future with a long-term perspective, improves the quality of life of our people, equips our country's human resources to compete with the contemporary world. In order to ensure that more qualified manpower comes to Turkey, new incentive mechanisms will be created and work permit processes are facilitated and accelerated. It is aimed to strengthen the human resources of the centers and schools to serve children better. Considering the power of human resources policy to realize social change, it is also important to consider what has been done in policy areas and future expectations.

Local governments on an equal footing? Policy coordination between Swedish regions and municipalities in regional development policy

ABSTRACT This study focuses on challenges linked to policy coordination between the first and second tiers of local government. In most European countries today, the two levels are treated as local governments on ‘an equal footing’, but increasing expectations on the regions to take on a more leading role vis-à-vis the municipalities imply a more vertical relation. The aim of this study is to, through interviews with 40 leading municipal and regional representatives, analyse how Swedish municipalities and regions manage coordination challenges in regional development policy. The result indicates that the idea of governance through policy coordination does not always work smoothly in this setting. What is perceived as an important problem from a regional perspective is not necessarily perceived as an important problem from a municipal perspective, and vice versa. The size of the regions as well as institutional structures also affects the perceived expedience of the collaboration meetings.

Linking tourist's footprint and environmental tragedy through transportation, globalization and energy choice in BIMSTEC region: Directions for a sustainable solution using novel GMM-PVAR approach

The rising temperature in the world's atmosphere is an outcome strongly linked to man-made manufactured interventions. Recreational activities in the form of tourism are such interventions that can unleash multidimensional negative externalities if not regulated properly. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) region has become one of the major hubs for recreational activities in the last few decades. However, the region's tourism-led environmental degradation has received scant attention in the literature. As such, this paper unveils how tourist footprint affects the region's environmental sustainability and explores potential solutions to encourage the tourism industry to be more pro-environmental. We have used the novel GMM-PVAR technique to assess how globalization, transportation, green energy, and economic growth have affected the tourism industry and carbon footprint in the BIMSTEC region from 1990 to 2019. We lean on the empirical outcomes to propose regional sustainable tourism development policies. The GMM-PVAR model indicates that renewable energy, economic growth, and the transportation sector's development positively affect the tourism industry's growth in the region. However, globalization and environmental degradation negatively influence tourists' arrival. Contrarily, transportation services, economic growth, and tourism boost the carbon footprint in the region. Although globalization and clean energy reduce carbon footprint, these indicators are insignificant, indicating that this region is still lagging in renewable energy generation and failed to reap the positive spillovers of globalization. Based on these outcomes, we propose that the region redesign its tourism industry to encourage eco-friendly tourism by leaning more on pro-environmental strategies (i.e., powering the tourism industry through the penetration of renewable energies) and tightening environmental regulations.

Research on the Sustainable Development of Natural-Social-Economic Systems Based on the Emergy Accounting Method—A Case Study of Liyang in China

Coordinating the relationship between resources, environmental protection, and economic development is essential for regional sustainable development. Various frameworks and models for quantifying the sustainable development of regional natural–social–economic systems have been produced. This paper focused on measuring regional sustainable development from the perspective of sustainable consumption and production. The study improved the emergy sustainable indices and the evaluation system commonly used in the method of emergy accounting by introducing input and output emergy into the emergy flows. Then, we proposed new subsystem sustainable indexes for evaluating and analyzing the sustainable development trend of the complex natural–social–economic system in Liyang from 2005 to 2020 by adopting the entropy weight method. The results showed that Liyang was generally in a state of sustainable development, with good social sustainability. The economic and natural sustainability indexes were low, which might cause unsustainable risks in the future. From the input structure and production efficiency perspective, the secondary industry with the highest emergy output has a meager net output rate. In contrast, the tertiary industry has a higher net output rate (NOR) and better output efficiency, which should be the core industry in the region’s future development. From the perspective of environmental impact and resource and environmental carrying capacity, the natural contribution rate and environmental carrying rate should be improved and the waste emergy rate necessary to be reduced. This study hopes to provide implications for formulating regional land use, industrial planning, and sustainable development policies.

From a Market to an Urban Centre: Sekadau in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

ABSTRACTThe core–periphery model proposed and revised by Friedmann [Regional Development Policy; Urbanisation Planning and National Development] has influenced urban studies and urban planning for decades. Yet, the urban-rural dichotomy perhaps implied in that visionary model has been criticised for failing to take into account the complexities and blurred categories of contemporary urban aggregations. From another perspective, the critical issue has been what constitutes an urban setting and, connected to that issue, the question of where do small towns fit in a model associated with large industrial metropolitan areas. This paper explores the history and contemporary context of Sekadau, a small town in Indonesia’s province of western Borneo. For centuries, Sekadau has been a link in international trade and has had to reinvent itself as political and economic structures shifted. How has it developed with no industry and no urban planning?

BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF LITERATURE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE CENTER- PERIPHERY MODEL IN EUROPE

This paper investigates the effect of spatial divisions and their demarcations on the formation of networks and the inadequacies of specific policy implementations in mitigating marginalization processes. Despite the controversies surrounding numerous theoretical premises, the center-periphery model remains widely accepted. Implications of these ideas by synthesizing critical findings from a vast array of prior literature using a comprehensive bibliometric analysis have been clarified. Innovation and a readjustment of regional policy are required to address the disparities between the center and the periphery. Regional development policies of the European Union aim to reconcile the socioeconomic chasm between prosperous and peripheral regions. The localization theory of regional development provides insights into the spatial distribution of firms, the dispersion of economic prosperity, and the potential for future growth. These insights provide valuable perspectives on regional policies and the factors that influence the geographical distribution of economic activity.

Analysis of Caribbean XR Survey Creates an XR Development Strategy as a Path to the Regional Metaverse Evolution

XR provides benefits in innovation, competitiveness and sustainability that offset disruptions in and enhances physical reality. The Caribbean’s metaverse evolution started before the pandemic with the development of XR projects and creatives’ NFTs. The physical isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the Caribbean’s interest in the metaverse and XR. In 2020, only 83 participants from Trinidad and Tobago entered the CARIRI AR/VR Challenge to demonstrate their XR ideas. There is a need to encourage and accelerate regional XR development. The purpose of this research is to explore Caribbean XR developers’ experiences to provide an understanding of the factors affecting their XR development. This paper addresses the question: What factors of influence will encourage the development of XR projects in the Caribbean to advance their metaverse development? Online questionnaires issued to Caribbean XR developers from July to December 2021 obtained responses from 77 participants throughout 13 regional countries. The primary data were statistically insignificant and skewed towards two countries (Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago). Comparative and inferential analyses identified factors of influence, industry sectors, and design foci. The originality of this research is an XR development strategy that incorporates the I4.0, UX, and financial strategies. It establishes the XR project design foci (the user, the purpose and the location). The factors of influence minimum criteria and the industry sector(s) influence each design focus. An initial reference list of industry sectors is education (the preferred option), healthcare, tourism, culture, manufacturing for export, construction, entertainment, game development, agriculture, and environmental protection. The strategy’s value is in enabling content creators to design XR applications to meet consumers’ needs and increase the regional adoption of XR. The impact of the research on the Caribbean is to facilitate a path to the regional metaverse evolution. This research identified the need for a regional XR development policy.