Infrastructure Indicators Research Articles

MODEL KLASTERISASI WILAYAH KOTA BERDASARKAN INDEKS INFRASTRUKTUR UNTUK PERENCANAAN STRUKTUR RUANG BERKELANJUTAN

Banda Aceh has nine sub-districts. These sub-districts have different levels of infrastructure growth. This will make it difficult for the government to make policies or decisions to determine a good strategy for developing sub-districts in Banda Aceh City. To make it easier to make a policy in terms of infrastructure development for the sub-district, it is necessary to cluster the area in Banda Aceh City. Regional clustering will group regions with the same level of development. This will make it easier for the government to make a decision. In this study, there were eight infrastructure indices, roads, electricity, water, solid waste, telecommunications, wastewater, drainage, and green open spaces (RTH). From the results of the study, it was found that the discussion of Banda Aceh City can be divided into 3 clusters. The first clustering is a cluster that does not have a prominent advantage over the eight variables but has the lowest variable level in the fields of roads, garbage, and wastewater. The sub-districts included in the first clustering are Kuta Alam District and Syiah Kuala District. The second clustering is clustering which has the highest variables in the field of drainage and roads but has the lowest variables in the fields of green open space and drinking water. The sub-districts included in the second clustering are Baiturrahman District, Banda Raya District, Jaya Baru District, Leung Bata District, and Ulee Kareng District. The third clustering is the cluster that has the highest variables in the field of solid waste, drinking water, wastewater, and green open space but has the lowest variable in the drainage sector. From the results of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), it is found that development priorities are road construction, green open space, electricity, drinking water, telecommunications, wastewater, drainage, and finally solid waste. The results of the SWOT analysis show that the graph is located in the strength and opportunity sections. So the policy taken for the future is the main focus on the construction of infrastructure for solid waste, wastewater, green open space, and telecommunications.

Optimization of Suzhou Garden Infrastructure Layout Based on Federal Learning

Along with the accelerating urbanization process in China, the problem of urban infrastructure layout has become increasingly prominent. The high density of buildings and the extremely unreasonable distribution of infrastructure make the development face great resistance. This paper reveals the problems in the layout of garden infrastructure by studying and analyzing the theoretical foundations of federal learning and distributed learning and provides an in-depth analysis and elaboration of the problem. The paper uses the shape index and landscape index of green infrastructure (green space, arable land, and water bodies), the average width of roads, road network density, and weighted buildings to conduct a comparative study through the differences in ventilation speed and temperature at different layout garden scales. According to the problems existing in the garden layout in the experimental results, corresponding improvement measures are targeted, and the infrastructure layout of the garden is combined with ecology to make the layout within the garden more suitable.

Infrastructure inequities and its effect on poverty reduction across regional states in Ethiopia

Sustainable development aims to enhance the quality of life in an inclusive manner, including economic prosperity, social equity, and environmental protection. Megaprojects are ‘large unique projects’ where public actors play a significant role and are often the conduit of corruption, and eradication of corruption is one of the critical challenges in most parts of the world, particularly the developing countries. Besides, corruption in construction can decrease the efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of infrastructure and services, resulting in the execution of ‘white elephant’ projects that are neither growth-inducing nor relevant to needs. Therefore, lack of access to roads, electricity, mobile phones, and the Internet limits the potential earnings of modern accessibilities and facilities in developing countries, and it also has a negative impact on poverty reduction. Although there are high perceptions about infrastructure inequity in Ethiopia, the difference between relatively developed and underdeveloped regions or states is not clear, especially in the equitable allocation of infrastructure resources. By analysing regional infrastructure, the states are categorised based on the results of the Composite Infrastructure Index, thereby exposing the unequal distribution of infrastructure and services. This paper shows gross inequity of public investments in Ethiopia, hindering the country's nation-building process. In substantially unequal societies, elite groups are more able to manipulate and influence policymakers to their advantage. Understanding the nature and extent of regional inequities in Ethiopia, as exemplified by regional infrastructure differentials, and finding sustainable solutions is imperative to socioeconomic development and shared prosperity.

Impacts of infrastructure (in)equity and social (in)justice on democratic nation-building processes in Ethiopia

Inequity in infrastructure distribution and social injustice’s effects on Ethiopia’s efforts to build a democratic society are examined in this essay. By ensuring fair access to infrastructure, justice, and economic opportunity, those who strive for social justice aim to redistribute resources in order to increase the well-being of individuals, communities, and the nine regional states. The effects that social inequity and injustice of access to infrastructure have on Ethiopia’s efforts to develop a democratic society were the focus of the study. Time series analysis using principal component analysis (PCA) and composite infrastructure index (CII), as well as structural equation modeling–partial least squares (SEM-PLS), were necessary to investigate this issue scientifically. This study also used in-depth interviews and focus group discussions to support the quantitative approach. The research study finds that public infrastructure investments have failed or have been disrupted, negatively impacting state- and nation-building processes of Ethiopia. The findings of this research also offer theories of coordination, equity, and infrastructure equity that would enable equitable infrastructure access as a just and significant component of nation-building processes using democratic federalism. Furthermore, this contributes to both knowledge and methodology. As a result, indigenous state capability is required to assure infrastructure equity and social justice, as well as to implement the state-nation nested set of policies that should almost always be a precondition for effective state- and nation-building processes across Ethiopia’s regional states.

Constructing Indonesian Composite Infrastrcuture Index using Principal Component Analysis.

This article aims to develop Indonesia's economic infrastructure indices, including transportation, telecommunications, education, and financial. The index employs indicators from 2018 at the regency level using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to aggregate the index for each infrastructure component. The result shows that the use of PCA to reduce the data dimensions is quite effective in producing indices because the principal components are very representative of the data set as a whole.

How infrastructure development and technical efficiency change caused resources consumption in BRICS countries: Analysis based on energy, transport, ICT, and financial infrastructure indices

Improved environmental quality and resource efficiency are essential policy plans for emerging economies. The vulnerability to climatic adversities initiates the need to construct and identify how to evaluate and ensure resource efficiency. Although many studies explore multiple deriving factors of resource consumption, very little is known regarding the integration of infrastructure, technical change, and trade-adjusted resource consumption. Hence, this study intends to examine the empirical links between disaggregated infrastructure development, technological efficiency change, and resource consumption using annual data of BRICS countries from 1990 to 2018. In doing so, we employ a cross-sectional augmented auto-regressive distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) estimator for short-term and long-term estimations that allows heterogeneity in the slope parameters and dependencies across countries. The results exhibit that cumulative and disaggregated (transport, energy, financial, and information and communication (ICT)) infrastructure development increase resources consumption across all model specifications; however, the magnitude of different infrastructure indices vary, such as transport and energy (financial and ICT) infrastructure producing the highest (lowest) impact. In contrast, technical efficiency changes and their interactive terms with each infrastructure development index decrease resource consumption, implying that the resource-depleting consequence of infrastructure development can be neutralized with higher technical efficiency, and the highest decoupling exists in energy and ICT infrastructure. Similar results are obtained using the Common Correlated Effect Mean Group (CCEMG) estimator. These results provide substantial policy implications.

Does infrastructural development allure foreign direct investment? The role of Belt and Road Initiatives

PurposeChina's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is the most ambitious investment strategy for infrastructural development belonging to the significant potential for stimulating regional economic growth in Asia, Europe and Africa. This study aims to investigate the impact of infrastructure on spurring inward foreign direct investment (FDI) within the purview of human capital, GDP per capita, foreign aid, trade, domestic investment, population and institutional quality in BRI countries.Design/methodology/approachIn doing so, the authors analyze panel data from 2000 to 2019 within the framework of the system generalized method of movement (GMM) approach for 66 BRI countries from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.FindingsThe investigated results demonstrate that aggregate and disaggregate infrastructure indices, e.g. transport, telecommunications, financial and energy infrastructures, are the driving forces in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the BRI countries. In addition, control variables (i.e. institutional quality, human capital, trade, domestic investment, foreign aid and GDP per capita) play an essential role in spurring FDI inflows.Originality/valueThe authors’ study uniquely investigates both the pre- (2000–2012) and post- (2013–2019) BRI scenarios using the aggregate and disaggregate infrastructural components from the perspectives of full and clustered sample regions, such as Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The study provides several policy implications.

Financial infrastructure—total factor productivity (TFP) nexus within the purview of FDI outflow, trade openness, innovation, human capital and institutional quality: Evidence from BRICS economies

ABSTRACT BRICS countries’ contribution to the global economy has received wider attention. The critical factor behind their role is financial market reform that stimulates these economies’ productivity growth. This research contributes to constructing a comprehensive index of financial infrastructure and measuring its relationship with BRICS economies’ total factor productivity (TFP) within the purview of outward FDI, trade openness, human capital, innovation and institutional quality during 1990–2019 using the CS-ARDL technique. The findings divulge a significant and positive role of financial infrastructure in TFP both in the long and short runs, while outward FDI, trade openness, human capital, and innovation walk on the same footing in BRICS countries. Moreover, the CS-ARDL-based investigated findings remain the same across the two-way fixed effect with Driscoll and Kraay Standard Error technique. Therefore, BRICS countries’ more promotion of financial dynamics and other ancillary economic, demographic, and technological factors is critical to stepping towards the spectacular growth trajectory.

The Evaluation of Technology Startup Role on Indonesian SMEs Industry 4.0 Adoption Using CLD-ABM Integrated Model

The role of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the regional socioeconomic stabilizer is inseparable from endogenous multisector collaboration. Indonesian SMEs struggled with Industry 4.0 adoption due to the lower digital infrastructure (DI) and digital literacy (DL) index. This study aims to develop a provisional model to explore the role of technology startups (TS) in covering the DI and DL of SMEs. The evaluation was through a simulation model of Indonesian SMEs’ collaboration with the government and TS. The developed model is a concurrent real-time integration of an agent-based model (ABM) with a causal loop diagram (CLD). The simulation results imply that SMEs’ collaboration with TS leads to the early adoption of Industry 4.0 that balances the business competition environment. The model also shows that exponentially rising government aid can help the SMEs into late adoption of Industry 4.0. However, SMEs are still unable to sustain the business competition. Thus, the integrative simulation model is a state-action planning model with each state result bounded to the previous state result. The initial input parameters determine the model behavior. Thus, the model is a good resiliency planner for SMEs’ Industry 4.0 adoption.

E-Government Development Index (EGDI) and its relationship with the economic development level in the EAEU countries

Modern digital technologies have become an important factor in improving the quality of public administration in the services provision by government bodies and structures and in ensuring sustainable development and economic growth. There is a certain relationship between the level of the government digitalization and the economic development level of the country. The scale and speed of the digital technology introduction is largely determined by the level of economic development. In turn, the quality and volume of public services provided make it possible to more fully and efficiently use the society potential in the economic development interests of the country and its citizens. The article is devoted to the analysis and identification of the relationship nature between the development of e-government and the economic development level in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries, and the assessment of these characteristics’ interconnection closeness. The article was applied methodological approaches and key indicators used by the United Nations (UN) to assess the information society development level. A comparative analysis of the e-government development indices (EGDI) and gross domestic product per capita in the EAEU countries from 2010 to 2020 was carried out. The dynamics of change and the relationship of these indicators was investigated. The Electronic Government Index (EGDI) is considered in terms of its three main components (subindices): the online public services development level (Online Service Index), the telecommunications infrastructure development level (Telecommunication Infrastructure Index), the human capital development level (Human Capital Component). Based on the results obtained, conclusions were formulated and the prospects for further changes in these indicators in the new social and economic conditions were considered.

Assessing the Impact of Education, Health and Road Network Infrastructure on Information and Communication Technology Penetration in Rural West Bengal

This study examines the impact of infrastructure, more specifically education, health, and road network infrastructure, on information and communication technology (ICT) penetration in the districts of West Bengal. Besides, the study also investigates the spatial distribution of infrastructure and ICT in the districts of West Bengal. The whole research is based on primary and secondary data. Data have been collected from the District Census and District Statistical Handbooks. The principal component analysis and correlation coefficient techniques are used to assess the impact. The study reveals that the degree of correlation between infrastructure and ICT variables is medium to high, except in some cases. As the Infrastructure Index increases, the ICT index also tends to increase. It is found that a moderate positive relationship (r = 0.503) was found between the infrastructure index and the ICT index. Significant policy regarding basic infrastructure services is of utmost necessity for ICT diffusion within the study region.

Determinants of FDI inflows to West Africa: Prospects for regional development and globalization

Abstract This paper examines the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow into West Africa. FDI is regarded as the central engine for growth. Such inflows are not often satisfactory, both in terms of their volume and in terms of their sectoral distribution, particularly in developing countries. The study carried out a unit root test using the Im-Pesaran-shin (IPS) method, which revealed that four out of many variables were stationary at first difference, while other variables were stationary at level. Consequently, the Kao co-integration test methodology was used to analyze the long-run relationship. Thus, the regression analysis was carried out using the Panel ARDL method in an equation with a 50-year observation period. Concerning the remaining seven equations with shorter time series observations, the Pooled OLS estimation method was used to analyze the factors determining the inflow of FDI. The results indicate that financial development has a negative effect on FDI flows (and hence on globalization processes) in West Africa, while trade openness, institutional composite index and control of corruption have positive effects on FDI and hence increase globalization tendency. Based on these findings, the study recommends, among other things, that the authorities in West African countries vigorously pursue trade liberalization policy as an effort to globalize the region through FDI inflows. The study examined the macroeconomic determinants on FDI alongside institutional and socio-political determinants that are difficult to study in the case of West Africa as a region. The use of a composite institutional quality index, which combines multiple indicators of institutional quality, is another novelty of this research. Another unique contribution of the study is the use of the Africa Infrastructure Development Index (AIDI), which serves as a composite infrastructure index, as an explanatory variable.

A Place-based Approach to Assess the Vulnerability of Communities to Urban Floods: Case of Nagpur, India

Amongst all disasters, flood is the most incessant disaster influencing a noteworthy number of individuals all around the world. The developing countries have been profoundly affected by the calamities, due to excessive loss of lives and assets. The city of Nagpur in Maharashtra, India, is prone to water related disasters. In addition, the uncontrolled development has worsened the floods events. The existing physical infrastructure and social attributes have made the population vulnerable to urban floods. The study focuses on conducting a micro-scale i.e., community vulnerability assessment by identifying the drivers of vulnerability. A questionnaire based on the socio-economic and infrastructure characteristics was formulated and a primary survey was conducted. The study involved application of principal component analysis by means of python programming to develop socio-economic and physical infrastructure indices. The analysis enabled component wise and index wise visualization of low vulnerable to high vulnerable zones in Nagpur using Geographic Information System (GIS). The goodness-of-fit for socio-economic and physical infrastructure vulnerability index show R2 value as 0.7219 and 0.7058 respectively, suggesting the models to be substantial. This robust vulnerability framework can gauge the real conditions of the population thereby assist in developing policies and strategies to reduce the impact of urban floods.

Service support, work engagement and psychological wellbeing: validating an index of resource and infrastructure support for the delivery of CBT.

Effective dissemination of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been assisted by clearly defined competencies, skills and activities, and validated scales used to measure therapist competence and adherence. However, there is no validated measure of the resource and infrastructure support therapists require to enable them to deliver CBT in line with best practice. This study aimed to validate an index of resource infrastructure and support for the delivery of CBT. This study took an existing questionnaire developed by Groom and Delgadillo () and aimed to establish its psychometric properties through expert review and a pilot study. This resulted in a shorter questionnaire with good content validity, internal consistency (α = 0.80) and temporal stability (r = 0.74, p < .00). The index consists of six components, and construct validity was demonstrated through positive association with measures of work engagement (r = 0.31, p < .00) and practitioner wellbeing (r = 0.47, p < .00). The questionnaire provides a valid and reliable index of service support for delivering CBT, and is positively related to engagement and wellbeing among CBT practitioners.

Travel and tourism competitiveness index and the tourism sector development

The objective of this study is to test whether Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) enhances tourism sector development in terms of tourist arrivals, tourism receipts, and the change in both tourist arrivals and tourism receipts. The results found that TTCI main index (Level 1) is positively associated with tourist arrivals but not tourism receipts and the change in tourist arrivals and tourism receipts. Further analysis (Level 2) reveals that while the T&amp;T policy and enabling conditions index is positively associated with tourist arrivals, the infrastructure index is positively associated with tourism receipts. None of the Level 2 indices drives the change in tourist arrivals and tourism receipts. Among results obtained from Level 3 sub-indices, while price competitiveness, air transportation infrastructure, and cultural resources indices have a positive association with tourist arrivals, only ground and port infrastructure have a positive association with tourism receipts. Moreover, while safety and security, human resources and labor market, and air transportation infrastructure sub-indices drive a positive change in tourist arrivals, ICT readiness and natural resources drive a negative change in tourist arrivals and none of the sub-indices drives a change in tourism receipts. The study suggests several practical implications for tourism firms and policymakers.

Does the venue of scientific conferences leverage their impact? A large scale study on Computer Science conferences

PurposeConferences bring scientists together and provide one of the most timely means for disseminating new ideas and cutting-edge works. The importance of conferences in many scientific areas is testified by quantitative indexes. The main goal of this paper is to investigate a novel research question: is there any correlation between the impact of scientific conferences and the venue where they took place?Design/methodology/approachTo measure the impact of conferences, the authors conducted a large scale analysis on the bibliographic data extracted from 3,838 Computer Science conference series and over 2.5 million papers spanning more than 30 years of research. To quantify the “touristicity'' of a venue, the authors exploited indexes about the attractiveness of a venue from reports of the World Economic Forum, and have extracted four country-wide and two city-wide touristic indexes, which measure the attractiveness and the touristicity of any country or city.FindingsThe authors found out that the two aspects are related, and the correlation with conference impact is stronger when considering country-wide touristic indexes, achieving a correlation value of more than 0.5 when considering the average citations, and more than 0.8 when considering the total citations. Moreover the almost linear correlation with the Tourist Service Infrastructure index attests the specific importance of tourist/accommodation facilities in a given country.Research limitations/implicationsThere are two main limitations of this work: (1) the use of citations to evaluate the attractiveness of the conferences and (2) the difficulty to formally define the touristic attractiveness of a venue.Practical implicationsStarting from the results concerning the correlation between different touristicity indicators and the outcome of a conference in terms of citations, it would be possible to support conference organizers in their decisions. For instance, they could plan in advance conference venues considering the same touristicity indicators, comparing different options and selecting cities which have high scores. This will allow for rapid planning of a conference venue, encompassing the easiness of travel and the attractivity of a venue, hence increasing the potential outcomes of the conference.Social implicationsRegarding the social implications, this study will enable the possibility for municipalities and conference organizers to understand what it can be improved in a specific venue to make it more attractive. This may include better transport connections or selecting cities which show a high potential regarding the touristicity index. Regarding the willingness of a researcher to submit a paper to a specific conference, it would be unaltered, meaning that what the results show is that there is already a mental process, before submitting a paper to a conference, which considers these indicators.Originality/valueThis is the first attempt to focus on the relationship of venue characteristics to conference papers. The results open up new possibilities, such as supporting conference organizers in their organization efforts.

On Hedging Properties of Infrastructure Assets during the Pandemic: What We Learn from Global and Emerging Markets?

Infrastructure investment is essential for economic development for both developed and developing economies. We analyze the short-term return behavior and portfolio characteristics of the global, regional, and selected Asian countries’ infrastructure indexes during the pandemic over the sample period 3 July 2018 to 1 July 2021. According to the multivariate Glosten, Jagannathan, and Runkle (GJR) Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) with dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) model, infrastructure assets are very heterogeneous depending on the corresponding asset classes. Empirical evidence suggests that infrastructure can be treated as a separate asset sub-class within conventional financial assets. Moreover, we quantify the co-movements between returns on various listed infrastructure indexes and major asset classes, including equity, commodity, currency, and bond index returns. We find that infrastructure assets offer hedging potential against the USD index and USD denominated assets.

Performance Index Model of River and Infrastructure

The study of river performance and infrastructure is not only conducted qualitatively. An instrument is needed to examine the object being observed quantitatively (usually with a minimum and maximum number scale interpretation). The review of the physical condition assessment for the river performance index and river infrastructure has not been developed based on a study of the variables that influence it. Therefore, this study aims to develop a mathematical model of the index of river performance and infrastructure as a decision support system for the integration of programs and activities related to river management. The research location was chosen based on the consideration that there has been no preparation of a performance index model in the Babon River. In this study, the authors use the Smart-PLS (Partial Least Square) application to analyze and narrow the variables and then re-analyze them using the Generalized Reduced Gradient (GRG) method to calculate non-linear equations. There are four variables, eight dimensions, and 51 (indicators) used, with the types of technical, spatial, social, and regulatory variables. Based on the PLS-SEM analysis, the results were narrowed into 4 (four) variables, 8 (eight) dimensions, and 51 (fifty one) indicators that were interrelated with one another. The GRG (Generalized Reduced Gradient) analysis with the solver in Microsoft Excel showed the most influential weights consisting of: technical variables, namely rivers (0.475) and flood problems (0.582); spatial variables, namely land use (0.418) and land cover (% Urban) (0.498); social variables, namely community activities (0.454), settlement density and socio-cultural conditions (0.289), and community participation (0.257); and regulation variables, namely law enforcement efforts (1.000). This research can be used for other watersheds with conditions or characteristics relatively similar to the Babon River. However, research related to this formulation on other watershed conditions still needs to be done.

E-Readiness for E-Learning: A Nepal Case

The level of capacity which is essential to appreciate and utilize digital technology in any organization or in the nation is refers as e-Readiness. E-Readiness of government is being a strong backbone to implement e-governance in the country. It became a vital policy tool for all countries since it enhances the trust of the citizens through applying the principles of good governance. The objective of this paper is to examine the e-Readiness status of Nepal. The literature review and content analysis methodology has applied during accomplishing the study. The study concludes that for improvement of the government efficiency, the Government organizations should implement ICT to improve service delivery for the citizens as well as businesses. E-governance activities enable a long-term revolution of the governments that helps far elsewhere the online service delivery. Based on the UN E-governance survey, data on E-governance readiness and participation indices for Nepal over a period of 2003-2020 were analyzed to have a deeper understanding of the current scenario. It shows that the e-Government development Index rank, e-Government Development Index value, e-Participation Index rank, e-Participant Index value, Online service Index value, Telecommunication Infrastructure Index value and Human Capital Index value.

Linear and non‐linear effects of infrastructures on inclusive human development in Africa

AbstractThe objectives of this paper are to verify the linear and the non‐linear effects of infrastructural development on inclusive human development in Africa. The results of the system generalized method of moments (system GMM) estimations show a positive effect of infrastructural development on inclusive development across all the infrastructural development indexes employed, except the information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructural composite index, which presents an insignificant negative effect. Besides, a non‐linear effect of infrastructures on inclusive development is established across all the infrastructure indicators except for the ICT indicator. Negative thresholds for complementary policies are established for the African Infrastructure Development Index (AIDI) and the transport index whereas positive thresholds are apparent for the electricity index and the water and sanitation infrastructure index (WSS). Accordingly, in order to sustain the positive incidence of the AIDI and transport index on human development, complementary policies should be engaged to avoid an overall negative effect on human development when the indexes are, respectively, 31.12 and 25.56. In the same vein, the electricity index and WSSI should exceed critical levels of, respectively, 49.79 and 41.92, to engender an overall positive effect on inclusive human development.