Model Of Regional Integration Research Articles

Terrestrial carbon dynamics and economic valuation of ecosystem service for land use management in the Mediterranean region

Land use change is a significant cause of land degradation, resulting in the removal of carbon and its transfer to the hydrosphere or atmosphere, which can have a detrimental impact on essential ecosystem functions and services. In contrast, rural landscapes offer both ecological and economic benefits to people due to their carbon storage properties. This benefit is often evaluated within the framework of Ecosystem Services (ES). The rural landscapes offer unique structures and ecosystem services. The aim of this study is to provide an economic quantification of carbon storage and sequestration in rural landscapes as an ecosystem service and to introduce carbon-based rural landscape management. The study enables the integration of carbon-based strategies and policies by generating quantitative outputs for landscape plans that have not yet been included in the spatial planning hierarchy. The Upper Seyhan Basin (USB), located on the Eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkiye, was modelled using spatiotemporal and economic valuation approaches to assess terrestrial carbon storage and sequestration in this context. The study modelled and mapped the four main terrestrial carbon storage components in the rural landscape: (i) above-ground biomass, (ii) below-ground biomass, (iii) Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), and (iv) dead organic matter carbon. The future land cover of 2055 was modelled using the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP)-Markov Chain (MC) algorithm based on the “Business-As-Usual” (BAU) scenario to determine future carbon sequestration. The Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) was estimated for Turkiye using the Regional Integrated Model of Climate and Economy (RICE) to economically model carbon services. In the final stage of the study, modelling outputs, including carbon storage pools/sinks, projected land cover dynamics, and SCC components, were used within the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model to map the carbon dynamics of the rural landscape at the regional level. This paper demonstrates the role of geospatial modelling and proposes a new planning and design logic that considers carbon-based inputs and global climate change in an appropriate format for land management by bridging the interface between earth sciences and spatial planning. The study results indicate that, the rural landscape in the study area provided an ecosystem service of 70,266 TgC carbon in 2014 with a storage value of USD 222,853,170. For the 2014–2025 projection, an estimated 1.042 TgC of carbon sequestration was valued at USD 6,234,137. The 2014–2055 projection estimated 3.185 TgC of carbon sequestration valued at USD 58,745,265.

Aging Increases Global Annual Food Greenhouse Gas Emissions up to 300 Million Tonnes by 2100.

The dietary preferences of the elderly population exhibit distinct variations from the overall averages in most countries, gaining increasing significance due to aging demographics worldwide. These dietary preferences play a crucial role in shaping global food systems, which will result in changed environmental impacts in the future such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We present a quantitative evaluation of the influence of population aging on the changes in GHG emissions from global food systems. To achieve this, we developed regional dietary coefficients (DCs) of the elderly based on the Global Dietary Database (GDD). We then reconciled the GDD with the dataset from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to calculate the food GHG emissions of the average population in each of the countries. By applying the DCs, we estimated the national food GHG emissions and obtained the variations between the emissions from aged and average populations. We employed a modified version of the regional integrated model of climate and the economy model (RICE) to forecast the emission trends in different countries based on FAO and GDD data. This integrated approach allowed us to evaluate the dynamic relationships among aging demographics, food consumption patterns, and economic developments within regions. Our results indicate that the annual aging-embodied global food GHG emissions will reach 288 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (Mt CO2e) by 2100. This estimation is crucial for policymakers, entrepreneurs, and researchers as it provides insights into a potential future environmental challenge and emphasizes the importance of sustainable food production and consumption strategies to GHG emission mitigations associated with aging dietary patterns.

The Challenge of Cultural Diversity in Regional Integration: A Comparative Analysis of the EU and ASEAN

With the trend towards globalisation and increasing economic, political and cultural interconnectedness, the need for regional integration has become more pressing. However, cultural differences between member states, including differences in ethnicity, background and values, often pose an obstacle to regional integration. The European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are two very important regional organisations, although they both aim to promote regional integration and thereby develop regional economies and provide the region with international competitiveness. However, the different historical backgrounds, economic structures and political formations between the two regions have led to different models and objectives for regional integration, and thus the challenges of cultural diversity are similar as well as different in many ways. With the trend towards globalisation and the prominence of cultural diversity issues in the region, comparing the challenges and opportunities of cultural diversity in the regional integration process between the EU and ASEAN, both regions, helps to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the different models of regional integration and why policies related to cultural diversity need to be tailored, rather than copied, to the local context.

ASEAN Integration Process as a Model of Successful Regional Integration

ASEAN Integration Process as a Model of Successful Regional Integration

Contesting the integration narrative: Shifting perceptions of EUrope

The European Union (EU) has long projected the vision of an integrating Europe, centred on successful regional integration, as a better geopolitical model in comparison to ‘others’, such as the Cold War superpowers, US neoconservativism or diverse autocratic regimes. The purported superiority of the ‘European model’ is thereby linked to credibly advancing the story of successful regional integration – internally as well as externally. This article suggests a narrative continuum between EU-optimism and EU-scepticism and argues that perceptions about the ‘success’ of the EU as a model for regional integration have changed between the first and the second decade of the new millennium. As part of this shift, EU-scepticism has gained in prominence over EU-optimism. This is related to a series of geopolitical ruptures since the late 2000s, in particular, the financial crisis, disputes on human mobility and border management, rising nationalism, Brexit and other right-wing populist movements across the continent. Focussing on the divisions within the EU as regards financial and migration policy, this article highlights three interrelated simultaneities. It argues (a) that process and discourse of (b) integration and disintegration have (c) internal and external dimensions. Empirically, it builds on interviews with African and European geopolitical elites that have been conducted as part of two research projects on external perceptions of the EU in East Africa between 2010 and 2018. It thus offers a snapshot on the shift of both ‘internal’ and ‘external’ perceptions of the EU against the context of wider geopolitical transformations over the course of this decisive decade.

Regional trade and expansion planning (RTEP) model: Model for regional power sector integration in Africa

Regional power pools present a significant and potentially defining opportunity for African power systems to develop domestic energy resources, improve system reliability, and contribute to overall economic development. Hydropower is expected to play a significant role in many regional power pools in Africa. Feasible power transmission highways from Grand Inga in Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Grand Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia to other regions on the continent create the possibility of a pan-African electricity grid. However, in the medium and long-term, global climate change is expected to cause major variations in Africa's hydrological resources and it is not known how these changes may impact the value of regional power sector integration. This paper presents a model developed to study the value of different levels of regional integration in sub-Saharan Africa and how this value may change in the face of climate change. This work builds on previous studies by incorporating the ability to trade between different regional pools, co-optimization of generation and transmission, the ability to share reserves, and detailed simulation of the major hydro basins in Africa. Numerical results of the analysis will be presented in a parallel paper.

Assessing the effect of a regional integrated care model over ten years using quality indicators based on claims data \u2013 the basic statistical methodology of the INTEGRAL project

BackgroundThe regional integrated health care model “Healthy Kinzigtal” started in 2006 with the goal of optimizing health care and economic efficiency. The INTEGRAL project aimed at evaluating the effect of this model on the quality of care over the first 10 years.MethodsThis methodological protocol supplements the study protocol and the main publication of the project. Comparing quality indicators based on claims data between the intervention region and 13 structurally similar control regions constitutes the basic scientific approach. Methodological key issues in performing such a comparison are identified and solutions are presented.ResultsA key step in the analysis is the assessment of a potential trend in prevalence for a single quality indicator over time in the intervention region compared to the corresponding trends in the control regions. This step has to take into account that there may be a common - not necessarily linear - trend in the indicator over time and that trends can also appear by chance. Conceptual and statistical approaches were developed to handle this key step and to assess in addition the overall evidence for an intervention effect across all indicators. The methodology can be extended in several directions of interest.ConclusionsWe believe that our approach can handle the major statistical challenges: population differences are addressed by standardization; we offer transparency with respect to the derivation of the key figures; global time trends and structural changes do not invalidate the analyses; the regional variation in time trends is taken into account. Overall, the project demanded substantial efforts to ensure adequateness, validity and transparency.

Economic Effects of Regional Economic Integration: The Case of the Abraham Accords

In a world full of developments and risks, states have sought to consolidate their macroeconomic policy under the banner of a regional economic bloc. They can benefit by strengthening their position in the field of economic integration, either through preferential trade agreements or through foreign direct investment or labor force. This study examines the Abraham Accords as a model of regional economic integration and reviews the background to the signing of the agreements and the political and economic factors that led to the signing. The study then presents the realities of the application and the impact of the agreements on the economy of the integrated states after two years of signing, revealing the challenges and opportunities.

DECONSTRUCTING THE “IDEAL POWER EUROPE” META-NARRATIVE IN EU PEACEBUILDING

This article attempts to portray how the representation of the European Union (EU) as a model of peaceful regional integration helps legitimize the Union’s imposition of a disciplining power on -what it refers to as- “conflict/fragile zones”. With such legitimacy, the EU imposes its “best practices” on others, projects its own values and norms, and, thus, practices a European type of governmentality. While doing so, the EU pays little attention to the specific cultural, political, economic and social characteristics of “conflict-prone” societies and overlooks local/grassroots agency. This article thus argues that representing the EU as a model of peaceful integration contributes to its construction as an “ideal power” and legitimizes its peacebuilding efforts in other regions and countries. Its major conclusion is that the “ideal power Europe” meta-narrative produced and reproduced by EU researchers and policy-makers feeds into the Union’s governmentality, helping it discipline recipient societies through its peacebuilding.

Improving economic position of Vietnam in Asean Economic Community (AEC) from the global integration perspectives

After participating in ASEAN, and through various dialogue mechanisms, Vietnam now has become a more important and comprehensive economic member of the ASEAN Economic Community. This study focuses on analyzing the process of participating in the ASEAN Community and the roles and contributions of Vietnam in this organization to affirms Vietnam's position in the process of forming the AEC and demonstrates Vietnam's priorities for the integration process. The paper uses the primary and secondary data by using tools of desk research of different data in relativeness and by the quantitative method by using the Cobb-Doughlas function with a logarithmic form. The paper confirms the integration of Vietnam's economy into the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is an inevitable development after the achieved results of ASEAN's cooperation and economic connection. The AEC is an open regional economic integration model. The implementation of the AEC will bring in multi-dimensional impacts on member countries, and the extent of these impacts will depend on the level of regional and international economic integration, competitiveness, and effectiveness of policy reform in each country.

Improving economic position of Vietnam in Asean Economic Community (AEC) from the global integration perspectives

After participating in ASEAN, and through various dialogue mechanisms, Vietnam now has become a more important and comprehensive economic member of the ASEAN Economic Community. This study focuses on analyzing the process of participating in the ASEAN Community and the roles and contributions of Vietnam in this organization to affirms Vietnam's position in the process of forming the AEC and demonstrates Vietnam's priorities for the integration process. The paper uses the primary and secondary data by using tools of desk research of different data in relativeness and by the quantitative method by using the Cobb-Doughlas function with a logarithmic form. The paper confirms the integration of Vietnam's economy into the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is an inevitable development after the achieved results of ASEAN's cooperation and economic connection. The AEC is an open regional economic integration model. The implementation of the AEC will bring in multi-dimensional impacts on member countries, and the extent of these impacts will depend on the level of regional and international economic integration, competitiveness, and effectiveness of policy reform in each country.

Spectral characterization of the effect of gas-water ratio on dissolved organic nitrogen variation along a drinking water biological aerated filter.

To improve the understanding of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) variation characteristics in a biological aerated filter (BAF) used for drinking water treatment, this study investigated the effects of gas-water ratios (0, 0.5:1, 2:1, and 10:1), a controlling factor of BAF operation, on DON characteristics. The dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removal efficiency in the BAF was consistent with DON concentration and increased as the gas-water ratio increased to a certain point, above which the increase gradually decreased. The optimal gas-water ratio in this study was considered to be 2:1 from the perspective of DOC removal and DON reduction. Use of fluorescence regional integration (FRI) and parallel factor (PARAFAC) model to analyze the effects of the gas-water ratio on the spectral characteristics of DON revealed that humic acid-like substances were not sensitive to the gas-water ratio, while protein-like substances were more sensitive. Increasing the gas-water ratio was beneficial to the reduction of biodegradable DON. Correlation analysis showed that the results obtained using FRI were consistent with those obtained using the PARAFAC model under different gas-water ratios.

The impact of climate risk valuation on the regional mitigation strategies

Different assumptions and methodologies prompt divergent policy recommendationgs for combatting climate change. Although climate scientists would like to be as precise as possible, policymakers with different attitudes towards climate change will always choose the result that matches their own value judgments. This paper discusses the impact of climate change attitudes on optimal mitigation in 15 regions. The climate change attitude is refined by a meta-analysis of 27 climate damage estimations and distilled into five damage functions. The optimal mitigation is calculated using the non-cooperative scenario of the regional integrated model of climate economy (RICE). The results show that the optimal mitigation paths in developing countries are more sensitive to climate change attitudes than they are in developed countries. In 2100, the range of optimal emissions represents 20% of the average optimal emissions by developing countries, which is twice the value of average optimal emissions by developed countries. The average social carbon cost in developing countries is 20 times higher than that in developed countries. This large uncertainty may be the combined result of high shadow prices of capital and large quantities of future emissions in these developing countries.

High-Quality Development and Institutionalization of the BRI

After the BRI enters a new stage, high-quality development is becoming its main goal, but there is no consensus among Chinese academic circles on how to achieve high-quality development. Based on the assumption that the BRI is a development-oriented regional economic cooperation mechanism, the author proposes that the connotation of its high-quality development lies in sustainability, and the path to achieve sustainability lies in its institutionalization. The development orientation of the BRI determines that it does not set rules as a threshold during its initial stage, thus providing opportunities for developing countries to participate in international economic cooperation. However, this does not mean that the BRI does not need rules and institutionalization. Institutionalization is an endogenous requirement for deepening the BRI cooperation, an inevitable choice for addressing exogenous challenges, and a prerequisite for docking with the existing global governance system. It should be pointed that the institutionalization cannot duplicate the existing institutionalization model of regional integration, but needs to follow the principles of mutual consultation, gradualism and the Viewpoint of Righteousness and Benefit. Therefore, high-quality development of the BRI requires the establishment of a sustainable cooperation system, a benefit distribution system and a support system.

Land and livelihood in the age of COVID-19: Implications for indigenous food producers in Ecuador.

Like many Latin American countries, Ecuador responded to COVID‐19 by restricting trade and travel, a decision that disrupted the prevailing model of regional trade integration. Among some analysts, observations have been made that the lockdown represents a new opportunity to revitalize rural livelihoods and smallholder agriculture. This paper evaluates these claims by exploring the impact of COVID‐19 on household food security and smallholder food production in Chimborazo, a highland province that is known for extremely high rates of poverty and the highest concentration of Kichwa‐speaking Indigenous people in Ecuador. Drawing upon original empirical research, it makes the case that the prospects for revitalizing smallholder production remain structurally constrained by a legacy of land inequality and failed agrarian reform. According to our findings, the only sectors that thrived during the lockdown were ones that served local markets. For those requiring significant shipping and storage, merchants and traders were able to drive down farmgate prices, squeezing local producers. At the same time, new government legislation made it easier for employers to terminate wage labourers, undermining a vital source of income and employment for low‐income households. Far from revitalizing smallholder agriculture, the pandemic appears to have further entrenched an economic model of supporting agribusiness at the expense of family farms and migrant labour.

From fragmented levels of care to integrated health care: Framework toward improved maternal and newborn health.

Worldwide, health systems and care approaches vary widely due to local reality, distance to facilities, cultural norms, resources, staff availability, geography, and politics. Consequently, globally maternal-newborn dyad care and outcomes are highly variable, leading to approximately 800 maternal deaths daily with a 100-fold difference among high- and low-resource countries. Irrespective of where care is received, maternal safety and wellbeing should be preserved. Despite ongoing efforts, however, this is not the case. Large gaps exist between spending and clinical outcomes. Segmented health care, coupled with poor planning and inadequate resource distribution, results in failure to provide essential life-saving treatment. The proposed solution is a regional integrated care model from midwife to advanced level III/IV care and the newborn unit, achieved through effective coordination by site, staff, and clinicians. This model has been successfully implemented in high- to low-resource countries in the past 20years. In the large diverse population of the United States, constructive steps have been implemented to reduce high maternal mortality in black and rural communities. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the feasibility of rapid resources coordination to provide effective advanced care. The proposed integration of resources will have a major positive impact on the maternal-newborn dyad.

ВОЗМОЖНОСТИ ФОРМИРОВАНИЯ ИНТЕГРАЦИОННЫХ СИСТЕМ В АГРОПРОМЫШЛЕННОМ КОМПЛЕКСЕ

The paper substantiates the theoretical foundations of the formation of agricultural territorial-industrial cluster associations, the mechanism of their effective functioning and ensuring the competitiveness of integrated business entities. The structural model of the regional association of agro-industrial clusters and cooperatives is justified. The proposed model of regional cluster integration includes industry-specific product clusters. It is proposed to create an agricultural service cooperative at the village level, and a multifunctional service cooperative at the district level.

Hemispheric Integration: Materiality, Mobility, and the Making of Latin American Art by Niko Vicario

Reviewed by: Hemispheric Integration: Materiality, Mobility, and the Making of Latin American Art by Niko Vicario Álvaro Ramírez Vicario, Niko. Hemispheric Integration: Materiality, Mobility, and the Making of Latin American Art. U of California P, 2020. Pp. 312. ISBN 978-0-52031-002-5. In Hemispheric Integration: Materiality, Mobility, and the Making of Latin American Art, Niko Vicario demonstrates the process under which a new “geocultural category” called Latin American art came into existence toward the middle of the twentieth century. As was the case with their literary counterparts of the same era, Latin American painters were preoccupied with [End Page 310] establishing cultural and artistic singularity along with a market for their work beyond their national borders. However, the author reveals how the success of this endeavor was largely due to a political and cultural shift in which the United States gained international prominence and New York became the center of the art world. In the introduction, Vicario gives an overview of the sociocultural, political and economic terrain. He posits that prior to 1900, art was part of the import-export scheme that governed Latin American international relations where aesthetics came from abroad, mainly Europe. Influenced by José Enrique Rodó and José Martí, artists sought to break their cultural dependency by striving to create a mobile art, both national and Latin American, that could be exported and integrated in an international market. This shift occurred at the same time that the United States was displacing European domination and implementing the Good Neighbor policy that sought to integrate the hemisphere for strategic reasons, which included promoting closer intercultural relations. But even as they attempted to free themselves from the grasp of the West, Latin American artists were still in some way dependent on the metropolis for their existence, as the system retained the economic structure of import-export whereby art and painters substituted raw materials exported no longer to Europe but to the United States. The opening chapter meticulously traces the travels of David Alfaro Siqueiros throughout North and South America, as well as Cuba, as he innovates with new materials to modernize mural painting and leave behind what he calls “folk art for export.” Siqueiros becomes mobile and able to successfully create a geographically expansive art that encompasses more than the national. Vicario emphasizes how the muralist went from a collaborative phase imbued by revolutionary fervor critical of the connivance of fascism and capitalism to a more personalized work espousing a view increasingly in harmony with the economic and political interests of the United States. This change in Siqueiros’s politics appears to coincide with his collaboration with Nelson Rockefeller who also pursued a model of regional integration on behalf of the United States and MoMA. In the end, Siqueiros comes across as another “Millionaire’s painter,” something he had accused Diego Rivera of being. However, Vicario leaves us wondering to what degree Siqueiros was aware of the contradictions that ensued from his association with American capitalists. The second chapter focuses on Joaquín Torres-García, who after forty years of residing in Europe returned to his native country, Uruguay, to promote an alternative modern “morphological art” that stood in contrast not only to Europe but especially to Mexican muralism, as it downplayed politics and social realism. Torres-García likewise differed from the muralists in his attempt to produce art on an import substitution model that emphasized creating with resources at hand. This led to a mixture of primitivism and Constructivism posited as an autochthonous, modern, Latin American art, though Vicario rightly indicates its strong affinities with European artistic endeavors. The author highlights the importance of Torres-García’s work in shaping hemispheric integration underscoring the great influence he had on American artists, surpassing that of the muralists. His impact on Latin American painters was also remarkable yet in later years they rejected the “double aspect” of his art as retrograde. The third chapter is most illuminating as it explores Nelson Rockefeller’s role in constructing hemispheric integration. Vicario deftly delineates how the American industrialist weaved a network of commercial, political and artistic ties with Latin America much to the benefit of the United States...

Methodological framework for the assessment and comparison of various models of regional economic integration

The author proposes in this article an updated methodological framework for the assessment and comparison of various models of regional economic integration in terms of assessing their advantages, strengths, weaknesses and effects. Set of criteria has been developed for this purpose (type, form, methods, mechanism, factors, terms). The proposed methodological approach also creates a framework, which allows comparing the scale, depth and dynamics of different models of integration

Measuring the SCCs of different Chinese regions under future scenarios

The assessment of the social cost of carbon (SCC) is an important basis for formulating regional differentiated climate policies. This paper attempts to assess future SCC for eight Chinese regions by using the regional integrated model of climate and the economy (the RICE model), based on four scenarios, namely baseline (BS), carbon emissions trading (CET), carbon quotas (CQ), and carbon tax (CT) for the period 2005–2050. The results show that under the BS, CET, and CT scenarios, the SCC of China's eight regions increases by $22.26/t C, $20.58/t C, and $19.14/t C, respectively, from 2005 to 2050. The CT scenario performed best in terms of impact on CEs and SCC, but in order to do so they will have to bear certain economic losses. There are differences between the SCC of the eight Chinese regions under different scenarios. Under the BS, CET, and CT scenarios, the areas where SCC is highest are distributed in the Central, North Coast, and Southwest regions, and in the CQ scenario, the high-SCC areas are concentrated in the Southwest, North Coast, and Northeast regions. The low-SCC areas are distributed in the Beijing–Tianjin and South Coast regions under all four scenarios. The central and western regions will become the major energy consuming regions after 2025, so they will face a greater pressure than other regions to reduce emissions.