Local Administrative Areas Research Articles

A harmonized data set of ruminant livestock presence and grazing data for the European Union and neighbouring countries

Improving the sustainability of the European livestock sector requires recent data at high spatial resolutions. Only then can we analyse potential negative impacts of livestock related to ecosystem degradation, and positive ones such as preserving cultural landscapes through grazing. Data on livestock numbers in Europe are provided by the European statistical office but at a coarse spatial resolution aggregated to statistical regions like NUTS2 or even coarser. While data on a more detailed level, such as local administrative areas, are available from individual national statistical offices, a collection of harmonized data has not been available until now, limiting the use of livestock data in environmental and agricultural studies. We collected data from all European Union Member States and neighbouring countries, resulting in the most up to date and spatially explicit dataset on livestock numbers publicly available to all researchers. We provide data on livestock numbers for more than 70,000 administrative units in 43 countries and territories. In addition, we provide data on the share of cattle that are grazing.

JURIDICAL REVIEW OF THE WINNING OF THE EMPTY BOXES IN REGIONAL HEAD ELECTIONS

Elections for Regional Heads or commonly known as “Pilkada” are carried out directly by residents of the local administrative area who meet the requirements. The election of regional heads is carried out in a package together with the deputy regional heads. The regional heads and deputy regional heads in question include the governor and deputy governor for the province, the mayor and the deputy mayor for the city, and the regent and deputy regent for the district. Regarding the elections, By law, winning the empty box is allowed based on Article 54 D (2) of Law Number 10 of 2016 concerning the Second Amendment to Law Number 1 of 2015 concerning Stipulation of Government Regulations in Lieu of Law Number 1 of 2014 concerning Election of Governors, Regents , and the Mayor becomes Law. However, the next question is that the official appointed by the government based on the winner of the empty box represents legal interests. This has not been regulated by the government, so it is necessary to revise the latest Law to find out about it.
 Keywords: Election, Regional Head, Empty Box

A Stabilized Kriging Method for Mapping Disease Rates.

Mapping disease rates is an important aspect of epidemiological research because it helps inform public health policy. Disease maps are often drawn according to local administrative areas (LAAs), such as counties, cities, or towns. In LAAs with small populations, disease rates are unstable and are prone to appear extremely high or low. The empirical Bayes methods consider variance differences among different LAAs, thereby stabilizing the disease rates. The methods of kriging break the constraints of geopolitical boundaries and produce a smooth curved surface in the form of contour lines, but the methods lack the stabilizing effect of the empirical Bayes methods. An easy-to-implement stabilized kriging method is proposed to map disease rates, which allows different errors in different LAAs. Monte Carlo simulations revealed that the stabilized kriging method had smaller symmetric mean absolute percentage error than three other types of methods (the original LAA-based method, empirical Bayes methods, and traditional kriging methods) in nearly all scenarios considered. Real-world data analysis of oral cancer incidence rates in men from Taiwan demonstrated that the age-standardized rates in the central mountainous sparsely-populated region of Taiwan were stabilized using our proposed method, with no more large differences in numerical values, whereas the rates in other populous regions were not over-smoothed. Additionally, the stabilized kriging map had improved resolution and helped locate several hot and cold spots in the incidence rates of oral cancer. We recommend the use of the stabilized kriging method for mapping disease rates.

Predicting European cities’ climate mitigation performance using machine learning

Although cities have risen to prominence as climate actors, emissions’ data scarcity has been the primary challenge to evaluating their performance. Here we develop a scalable, replicable machine learning approach for evaluating the mitigation performance for nearly all local administrative areas in Europe from 2001-2018. By combining publicly available, spatially explicit environmental and socio-economic data with self-reported emissions data from European cities, we predict annual carbon dioxide emissions to explore trends in city-scale mitigation performance. We find that European cities participating in transnational climate initiatives have likely decreased emissions since 2001, with slightly more than half likely to have achieved their 2020 emissions reduction target. Cities who report emissions data are more likely to have achieved greater reductions than those who fail to report any data. Despite its limitations, our model provides a replicable, scalable starting point for understanding city-level climate emissions mitigation performance.

Population and distribution of Wattled Crane Bugeranus carunculatus, Gmelin, 1989 at lake Tana area, Ethiopia

The Wattled Crane is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and isolated population occurs in Ethiopia. This study was conducted in Chimba wetlands, Lake Tana area from October–2013 to December–2014. The objectives were to understand the distribution and population status of the Wattled crane and assess the vegetation characteristics and threats of the ecological units. The population size and density of cranes in the study area was determined from weekly counts carried out in equal-sized sampling units. The total survey area was divided into square grids, and each of them was 1.23 square km wide/size. A total of 10 grid squares, which have an area of 12.32 square km were considered for density analysis. Although the total area of the study was 208.2 km2, unsuitable habitats, such as forest or farmlands were excluded. Counts of cranes were made at known sites. The density was calculated as the average number of cranes counted per unit area. A total of 32 cranes were recorded. The density of cranes in the study area is 2.6 per km2. Cranes were located in Addis Amba, Dehena Mesenta, Latamba, and Legdia local administrative areas. The number recorded in each area varied, the largest (17) was recorded in Latamba Kebele and the fewest (2) in Legdia. The dominant vegetation type of Chimba wetlands is emergent macrophyte. However, the papyrus bed represents about 10% of the wetland. Species of vegetation other than papyrus bed is represented by a 20 quadrat study. A total of 26 macrophyte species belonging to 10 families were recorded. Intensive cultivation, draining of the wetland, habitat degradation, overgrazing of the wetland, overharvesting of papyrus, invasive species, and over-flooding are the major threats of wetlands.

Electrification Planner for Ghana Using Open-Source Web GIS

Energy system planning provides information, such as electrification rate and access, essential to match demand and supply of energy. As countries strive to rapidly grow their economies and increase the living standards of its citizens, energy planning system is essential to keep track of assets, accessibility, adequacy, availability, and distribution of energy resources across locations targeted for development. In Ghana, the Ghana Energy Development and Access Project (GEDAP) was mandated to provide up to 100 % electrification rate to the citizens by 2020. While this time has elapsed, public information system showing the spatial distribution and statistical analysis of electrification rate and access in communities and local administrative areas remain scanty. Such decision support system, which can inform energy investment decisions and policy formulation by local and international investors is not readily available, impeding on the Government of Ghana’s (GOG) electrification expansion efforts. It also hinders the nation in attaining the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop a decision support system on electrification rate in Ghana. The study used energy access data and open-sourced Geographical Information System (GIS) to map the spatial distribution and provide statistical analysis of electrification rate in the country. The resulting information was connected to a WebGIS that can provide access to query, manipulate, and visualize electrification rate in the counting. The developed system estimated that, presently, Ghana has an electrification rate of 85.16 % as of November 2020. This information, and the system in general, will aid decision makers to make swift decision and provide geospatial evidence-based report in achieving 100 % electrification rate in the country.

Japanese local government management of compulsory hospitalization for patients with mental disorders and comorbid COVID-19.

Administering medical treatment or managing quarantine for a patient is particularly difficult when a patient harming others or causing self-harm because of severe depression, a manic state, or psychomotor agitation is also infected with COVID-19. Kanazawa University Hospital is the only facility able to manage such difficult cases occurring in Ishikawa prefecture, a local administrative area in Japan. The hospital has arranged a negative pressure apparatus in a psychiatric ward with two protection rooms. This report describes an urgently established but viable system in one prefecture of Japan for treating COVID-19-infected patients with severe psychiatric symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A geospatial assessment of the rooftop decarbonisation potential of industrial and commercial zoned buildings: An example of Irish cities and regions

This paper describes a framework for estimating the effectiveness of photovoltaic and rainwater harvesting technology deployment on industrial and commercial zoned buildings to facilitate reducing national GHG emissions. Decarbonisation technologies pathways were investigated which may aid in meeting national decarbonisation targets, and their potential role at local administrative area scale evaluated. A finding arising from application of this method was that a small number of larger industrial and commercial buildings, representing only 4% of the sectors buildings, were found to account for 38% of its decarbonisation potential. Future carbon emission scenarios identified that electricity demand may be expected to increase for the industrial and commercial sector up to 2030, and that the technological potential for current photovoltaics systems have the potential to reduce GHG emissions by 4% more than currently planned Irish grid-scale decarbonisation trajectories. The method may be adopted at European scale, using local data on climate and building attributes, and is applicable at national, regional and local scales. The paper concludes with a review of technologies which may aid further decarbonisation studies, which include improved data availability for 3D building generation, and enabling technologies such as machine learning algorithms applied to satellite imagery.

Counting early deaths due to socioeconomic inequality

Counting early deaths due to socioeconomic inequality

Associations between ambient air pollution and cancer incidence in Taiwan: an ecological study of geographical variations

BackgroundAir pollution is a global public health concern. The World Health Organization has recently set up a goal of saving 7 million people globally by 2030 from air pollution related death. We conducted an ecological study of geographical variation to explore the association between air pollution (specifically, particulate matter <2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter [PM2.5], particulate matter <10 μm in aerodynamic diameter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, and ozone) and cancer incidence in Taiwan, from 2012 to 2016.MethodsIn this study, the yearly average concentrations of each air pollutant at 75 air quality monitoring stations were calculated, and using the kriging method, the concentrations were extrapolated to each and every geographical central point of 349 local administrative areas of Taiwan. Spearman rank correlation coefficients between the age-adjusted cancer incidence rates and various air pollutants were calculated by stratifying genders and urbanization degrees of the local administrative areas. A total of 70 correlation coefficients were calculated.ResultsIn total, 17 correlation coefficients were significantly positive at an alpha level of 0.05. Among these, four correlation coefficients between the age-adjusted cancer incidence rates and PM2.5 levels remained significant after Bonferroni correction. For men in developing towns, general towns, and aged towns and for women in aged towns, the age-adjusted cancer incidence rates increased 13.1 (95% confidence interval [CI], 8.8–17.6), 11 (95% CI, 5.6–16.4), 16.7 (95% CI, 6.9–26.4), and 11.9 (95% CI, 5.6–18.2) per 100,000 populations, respectively, for every 1 μg/m3 increment in PM2.5 concentrations.ConclusionsA significantly positive correlation was observed between the PM2.5 level and cancer incidence rate after multiple testing correction.

Spectral Features for the Detection of Land Cover Changes

Derivation of more sensitive spectral features from the satellite data is immensely important for better retrieving land cover information and change monitoring, such as changes in snow covered area, forests, and barren lands as some examples from local to the global scale. The major objectives of this paper are to present the potential of water-resistant snow index (WSI) for the detection of snow cover changes in the Himalayas, extant two composite images, biophysical image composite (BIC) and forest cover composite (FCC) for the detection of changes in barren lands and forested areas respectively, and two newly designed composite images, water cover composite (WCC) and urban cover composite (UCC) for the detection of changes in water and urban areas respectively. This research implemented the image compositing technique for the detection and visualization of land cover changes (water, forest, barren, and urban) with respect to local administrative areas where a significant land cover change occurred from 2001 to 2016. A case study was also conducted in the Himalayan region to identify snow cover changes from 2001 to 2015 using the WSI. Analysis of the annual variation of the snow cover in the Himalayas indicated a decreasing trend of the snow cover. Consequently, the downstream areas are more likely to suffer from snow related hazards such as glacial outbursts, avalanches, landslides and floods. The changes in snow cover in the Himalayas may bring significant hydrophysical and livelihood changes in the downstream area including the Mekong Delta. Therefore, the countries sharing the Himalayan region should focus on adapting the severe impacts of snow cover changes. The image compositing approach presented in the research demonstrated promising performance for the detection and visualization of other land cover changes as well.

Stakeholder Analysis Together with GIS and MCDA for Decision making in Municipal Solid Waste Management of Local Administrations of Thailand

MSW management is the world-wide problem every country is encountering due to its daily ever-increasing amount, environmental impact on sites, and vulnerability along transportation routes. Fortunately, novel technology and method such as GIS and MCDA have been recently efficient to assist in the management. With additional stakeholder participation, the management can significantly compromise conflicts and be promoted to be sustainable. This article focuses on proposing a new composite of spatial analytical tools and concepts of GIS, MCDA, and stakeholder participation for well-organized MSW management. As a case study, stakeholder analysis was performed in major local administrative areas of Phitsanulok province where experiencing such a problem and requires new solution prospective. Salience model and Mamdani’s FIS were appropriately used in the analysis to deal with stakeholder opinions which are fuzzy by nature. The analysis resulted in groups of relevant stakeholders, their priority levels, role characteristics, and preferences which influence waste management.

Geographic patterns of poor HIV/AIDS care continuum in District of Columbia

BackgroundConcurrent with the UNAIDS 90-90-90 and NHAS plans, the District of Columbia (DC) launched its 90/90/90/50 plan (Plan) in 2015. The Plan proposes that by 2020, 90% of all DC residents will know their HIV status; 90% of residents living with HIV will be in sustained treatment; 90% of those in treatment will reach “Viral Suppression” and DC will achieve 50% reduction of new HIV cases. To achieve these goals targeted prevention strategies are imperative for areas where the relative risk (RR) of not being linked to care (NL), not retained in any care (NRC) and low viral suppression (NVSP) are highest in the District. These outcomes are denoted in this study as poor outcomes of HIV care continuum. This study applies the Bayesian model for RR for area specific random effects to identify the census tracts with poor HIV care continuum outcomes for DC.MethodsThis analysis was conducted using cases diagnosed from 2010 to 2015 and reported to the surveillance system from the District of Columbia Department of Health (DC DOH), HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB Administration. The jurisdictions of the District of Columbia is divided into 179 census tracts. It is challenging to plot sparse data in ‘small’ local administrative areas, characteristically which may have a single-count datum for each geographic area. Bayesian methods overcome this problem by assimilating prior information to the underlying RR, making the predicted RR estimates robust.ResultsThe RR of NL is higher in 59 (33%) out of 179 census tracts in DC. The RR of NRC was high in 46 (26%) of the census tracts while 52 census tracts (29%) show a high risk of having NVSP among its residents. This study also identifies clear correlated heterogeneity or clustering is evident in the northern tracts of the district.ConclusionThe study finds census tracts with higher RR of poor linkage to care outcomes in the District. These results will inform the Plan which aims to increase targeted testing leading to early initiation of antiretroviral therapy. The uniqueness of this study lies in its translational scope where surveillance data can be used to inform local public health programs and enhance the quality of health for the people with HIV.

Combining network analysis with epidemiological data to inform risk-based surveillance: Application to hepatitis E virus (HEV) in pigs

Animal movements between farms are a major route of pathogen spread in the pig production sector. This study aimed to pair network analysis and epidemiological data in order to evaluate the impact of animal movements on pathogen prevalence in farms and assess the risk of local areas being exposed to diseases due to incoming movements. Our methodology was applied to hepatitis E virus (HEV), an emerging foodborne zoonotic agent of concern that is highly prevalent in pig farms. Firstly, the pig movement network in France (data recorded in 2013) and the results of a nation-wide seroprevalence study (data collected in 178 farms in 2009) were modelled and analysed. The link between network centrality measures of farms and HEV seroprevalence levels was explored using a generalised linear model. The in-degree and ingoing closeness of farms were found to be statistically associated with high HEV within-farm seroprevalence (p<0.05). Secondly, the risk of a French département (i.e. French local administrative areas) being exposed to HEV was calculated by combining the distribution of farm-level HEV prevalence in source départements with the number of movements coming from those same départements. By doing so, the risk of exposure for départements was mapped, highlighting differences between geographical patterns of HEV prevalence and the risk of exposure to HEV. These results suggest that not only highly prevalent areas but also those having at-risk movements from infected areas should be monitored. Pathogen management and surveillance options in the pig production sector should therefore take animal movements into consideration, paving the way for the development of targeted and risk-based disease surveillance strategies.

Waste production classification and analysis: a PCA-induced methodology

Knowledge of waste composition and production is a requirement to build an efficient waste management scenario. Analysis of this data at a detailed level of observation (regional or communal) is useful to create adapted local scenarios, thus optimizing the overall waste management. However, working at a detailed level of observation multiplies the number of scenarios to build. In this article, we use Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to identify similarities between local administrative areas. By grouping administrative areas based on their waste production, this analysis is an efficient way to reduce the number of local waste management scenarios to define and it also favors cooperation among similar administrative areas. To illustrate our methodology, we focus on the specific case of Reunion Island, which is composed of 24 municipalities. The PCA analysis enabled to identify 5 groups of municipalities, thus reducing the number of required scenarios to build drastically.

Are some areas more equal than others? Socioeconomic inequality in potentially avoidable emergency hospital admissions within English local authority areas.

ObjectivesReducing health inequalities is an explicit goal of England’s health system. Our aim was to compare the performance of English local administrative areas in reducing socioeconomic inequality in emergency hospital admissions for ambulatory care sensitive chronic conditions.MethodsWe used local authority area as a stable proxy for health and long-term care administrative geography between 2004/5 and 2011/12. We linked inpatient hospital activity, deprivation, primary care, and population data to small area neighbourhoods (typical population 1500) within administrative areas (typical population 250,000). We measured absolute inequality gradients nationally and within each administrative area using neighbourhood-level linear models of the relationship between national deprivation and age–sex-adjusted emergency admission rates. We assessed local equity performance by comparing local inequality against national inequality to identify areas significantly more or less equal than expected; evaluated stability over time; and identified where equity performance was steadily improving or worsening. We then examined associations between change in socioeconomic inequalities and change in within-area deprivation (gentrification). Finally, we used administrative area-level random and fixed effects models to examine the contribution of primary care to inequalities in admissions.ResultsData on 316 administrative areas were included in the analysis. Local inequalities were fairly stable between consecutive years, but 32 areas (10%) showed steadily improving or worsening equity. In the 21 improving areas, the gap between most and least deprived fell by 3.9 admissions per 1000 (six times the fall nationally) between 2004/5 and 2011/12, while in the 11 areas worsening, the gap widened by 2.4. There was no indication that measured improvements in local equity were an artefact of gentrification or that changes in primary care supply or quality contributed to changes in inequality.ConclusionsLocal equity performance in reducing inequality in emergency admissions varies both geographically and over time. Identifying this variation could provide insights into which local delivery strategies are most effective in reducing such inequalities.

Geographic Variation in Cancer Incidence among Children and Adolescents in Taiwan (1995-2009).

BackgroundEvidence from our recent study suggested that the overall trend for cancer incidence in children and adolescents has been increasing in Taiwan.MethodsTo analyze geographic variations in this trend, cancer frequencies and incidence rates of disease groups were quantified according to geographic areas among 12,633 patients aged <20 years during 1995–2009 by using the population-based Taiwan Cancer Registry. Three geographic levels were defined, namely county or city, region (Northern, Central, Southern, and Eastern Taiwan), and local administrative area (special municipality, provincial city, county-administered city, township, and aboriginal area).ResultsOf the regions, Northern Taiwan had the highest incidence rate at 139.6 per million person-years, followed by Central (132.8), Southern (131.8), and Eastern (128.4) Taiwan. Significantly higher standardized rate ratios (SRRs) were observed in Northern Taiwan (SRR = 1.06, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.02–1.10) and at the township level (SRR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.03–1.11). Of the cities or counties, New Taipei City yielded the highest SRR (1.08), followed by Taipei City (SRR = 1.07). A comparison of the rates in the four regions and the remainder of Taiwan according to cancer type revealed that only the rate of neuroblastomas in Eastern Taiwan was significantly low. Trend analysis showed that the most significant increase in incidence rate was observed at the township level, with an annual percent change of 1.8% during the 15-year study period.ConclusionsThe high rate of childhood cancer in Northern Taiwan and at the township level deserves further attention. The potential impacts of environmental factors on the upward trend of childhood cancer incidence rate in townships warrant further investigation.

An analysis of viewpoints on education for responsible consumption in higher education

Purpose– This paper aims to present the authors’ views on education for responsible consumption (ERC) in higher education, and deals with major components to be considered to educate students for responsible consumption.Design/methodology/approach– There are three components that seem relevant for ERC in higher education: taught courses should be closely linked with research being carried out into responsible consumption, ERC should focus on a global approach to reducing ecological impacts by changing consumption behaviour and the diversity of situations in terms of specific characteristics of local administrative areas and populations must be properly understood to adapt ERC messages and actions to significant local features.Findings– The diversity of modes of consumption and the complexity inherent in responsible consumption mean that the issue of ERC has to be considered from a global, cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspective. In the educational context, the wide variety of students, although creating some difficulties in terms of teaching, is nevertheless a positive factor, as it provides a cultural mix and encourages the appropriation of responsible consumption issues by all. Regarding the effectiveness of this type of ERC in achieving the expected outcome of reducing ecological impacts, assessment tools have to be introduced from student level to the level of the local authority as a whole.Originality/value– To reinforce these concepts and recommendations, this article highlights the master’s degree in “Human ecology: environmental challenges of the activities of production and consumption” (University of Bordeaux, France). This course is the only one in France to cover the issues involved in responsible consumption using a cross-disciplinary approach.

A Research Tendency Analysis of Local Administrative Area: Centering on Content Analysis of Thesis Contributed on KCI

A Research Tendency Analysis of Local Administrative Area: Centering on Content Analysis of Thesis Contributed on KCI

Le panel des bénéficiaires de l’API en Meurthe-et-Moselle : bilan de l’expérience et nouveaux résultats.

From 1991 to 2009, a panel of lone parents receiving Single Parent Allowance (API) was gradually built up from individual data contained in the management files at the Meurthe-et-Moselle Family Allowance Office. This panel allows to reconstruct individual spells of API receipt over a period of 215 months, from July 1991 to May 2009, for more than 26,000 lone parents. It also provides information on the living conditions of recipients after they left the system. Indeed, they were followed as long as they continued to receive, in the local administrative area of Meurthe-et-Moselle, at least one other family benefit. The aim of this article is twofold. First of all, it sets out to summarise what could be learnt about the individual trajectories of API recipients from the Meurthe-et-Moselle longitudinal file, whilst emphasising the main limitations of such a source. Secondly, it presents some new results from these data. The analysis carried out here shows that the circumstances of exit from API have not varied much during the 1990s and 2000s. It also emerges that setting up back to work incentives, from 1999, had hardly any impact on the employment rate of recipients.