Regional Economic Benefits Research Articles

A leadership competency model of science and technology parks: the case of Chungbuk Techno Park in Korea

Given their significant regional economic benefits, science and technology parks (STPs) have attracted continuous academic attention. To understand the predictors of performance of STPs, this study focuses on the critical impacts of leaders and develops a leadership competency model specialized for public STP leaders. The competency model identifies the qualities and conditions of an effective leader of public STPs, emphasizing management skills, bottom-up approach, and boundary spanning skills. To provide empirical support, this study adopts the case study approach and performs a behavior event interview with one of the most successful leaders of public STPs in Korea.

Economic effects in the UK periphery from unconventional gas development: Evidence from Wales

The paper examines the potential regional economic benefits of the development of unconventional gas. Wales (UK) represents an interesting lens through which to examine the expected effects of unconventional gas developments. In spite of significant resource endowments the region has found it difficult to internalise the economic benefits from prior energy developments. We examine whether possible commercial exploitation of unconventional gas in Wales will be any different from recent rounds of resource and energy investment. We address the challenges for resource peripheries in embedding economic activity linked to unconventional gas and show that there are dangers in generalising economic impact evidence from other states.

Sustainable Long-Distance Trail Management: International Perspectives

The management of long-distance trails was investigated through a review of global case studies including the Munda Biddi Trail (Australia), Nga Haerenga Cycle Trail (New Zealand), Arizona Trail and Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail (USA), West Highland Way (UK), Lechweg (Germany/Austria), E-Paths (Europe), Rim of Africa Trail (SA), and Jeju Olle Trail (South Korea). Through comparative analysis, the trail management components were identified as: funding, volunteering, governance, partnerships, conservation, infrastructure, and tourism. These components were then analyzed within the context of political, social and environmental settings. The findings indicate that the most financially sustainable model is the community approach, which involves a partnership between government and a not-for-profit organization. It extends the income stream options and reduces overhead through the use of volunteers for maintenance. Tourism strategies, such as marketing, promotion, and product and destination development, further extend the trail's financial sustainability by maximizing user numbers and partnering with businesses. This also increases regional economic benefits and improves the user experience.

The Gini coefficient structure and its application for the evaluation of regional balance development in China

The evaluation of balanced regional development should consider not only the economic and ecological benefits but also regional differences. A nongrouped Gini index is constructed based on a continuous distribution function to evaluate the regionally balanced development of the economy and the environment, and the applicability of the method is analyzed given the data characteristics. Combining the difference in the regional economic base and ecological carrying capacity, a multigroup overall Gini index (MGO-Gini) with regional spatial heterogeneity is further developed, along with its decomposition structure. This work evaluates and analyses the regional balance in China’s development with regard to regional industrial output, energy consumption and pollution emissions from 2000 to 2015 using both the nongrouped and the MGO-Gini. The results show that ①the Gini index constructed in this paper can be well adapted to fat-tailed data, which is a typical feature of China’s regional economic and ecological benefits data. ②The regionally balanced development of China does not obviously promote industrial output, whereas the regional balance of energy consumption shows the same upward trend when evaluated with both the nongrouped and the MGO-Gini from 2000 to 2015. In recent years, after a period of improvement, the regional balance of pollution emissions has experienced a downward trend. There is disparity in “cleaner production efficiency” between regions of China as well as an upward trend in this disparity in recent years. ③China’s interregional balance has been enhanced in terms of energy consumption and pollution emissions considering regional spatial heterogeneity, whereas the balance of economic output has been further reduced. ④The balance in regional energy consumption plays a supporting role in balanced development among regions. The imbalance within developed areas is the main source of regional economic output and energy consumption imbalances, and the imbalance in developing areas is the main source of the regional pollution imbalance in China.

A socio-technical analysis of consumer preferences about energy systems applying a simulation-based approach: A case study of the Tokyo area

In consideration of forthcoming amendments to laws and regulations about Japan’s energy systems, we conducted a socio-technical analysis to support discussions towards a consensus on socially acceptable and technologically feasible energy systems for Japan. Using a choice experiment survey, we analysed consumer preferences about the electricity supply in the Tokyo area. We found that consumers tend to purchase electricity from major providers with a renewable-energy component in the mix, which offers stable supply on cheap plans with little price volatility. Furthermore, they avoid nuclear power, and show a positive “willingness to pay” for regional power providers only after possible regional economic benefits are suggested. In our subsequent technical analysis, consumers’ estimated willingness-to-pay for the preferred nuclear-free and renewable energy options were compared with simulated electricity price changes in response to the roll-out of feasible energy systems technologies under different policy scenarios, using computational energy flow models. We found that simulated price increases from an immediate shutdown of nuclear plants and from feed-in tariffs for renewables would exceed consumers’ willingness-to-pay. Our approach of using survey- and simulation-based analyses jointly to facilitate informed discussions on energy system choices should lead to continuous improvements in public and policy discussions towards a consensus.

Indigenous land and sea management programs: Can they promote regional development and help “close the (income) gap”?

Throughout the world, there is growing recognition of the important role Indigenous people play in natural resource management and conservation. Indigenous Land and Sea Management Programs (ILSMPs; which provide funds to Indigenous people to support Indigenous land management activities) are also known to generate social and economic benefits, although relative few of these co‐benefits have been quantified. Using northern Australia as a case study, we analysed data on ILSMP expenditure within three regional input–output tables, learning more about the size and distribution of their associated regional economic benefits. We found ILSMPs make a significant contribution to regional economies—with multipliers commonly exceeding that of other key regional industries such as agriculture and mining. We also found ILSMP expenditures make a larger contribution to Indigenous household incomes than they do to non‐Indigenous incomes—thus helping to close the (income) gap. They will continue to do so, provided the proportion of ILSMP money spent on Indigenous (compared to non‐Indigenous) incomes does not fall below a threshold amount. Rather than finding evidence of a trade‐off between socio‐ecological and financial/economic goals, our results suggest ILSMPs, known for their ecological importance, can also make a vitally important contribution to economic development in rural areas.

Foreign Investment of Hi-Tech Enterprises as the Source of Knowledge Transfer to the Region — Opolskie Voivodship Case Study

Article’s aim is the critical analysis of the literature and case study of the knowledge transfer issue into Opolskie Voivodship by foreign investment of the hi-tech sector. To illustrate such undertaken problem the role and a place of knowledge transfer and high technologies sector as the factor having an impact on development of the region was discussed. Enterprises — foreign investors — are the source of the knowledge for human capital of the region, and because of that for enterprises of the region. There also will be pointed the practical example from Opolskie Voivodship, at the base of knowledge transfer by hi-tech enterprise into Opolskie Voivodship. After such stated analysis it is possible to state that foreign investment of hi-tech sector and knowledge transfer to region being their consequence, constitute actual field of scientific interests. As the pro-innovative action it is simultaneously the field of the mutual cooperation of hi-tech sector and regional economy. Interactions of these subjects are important not only from the point of view of mutual benefits, such as knowledge transfer by the side of regional economy and economic benefits, including those connected to regional human capital, by the side of hi-tech sector. Thus foreign investment of that sector can be pointed as the source of innovation, know-how and knowledge transfer, but also as the engines of social and economic changes in the region.

Novel Applications for Fog Water Harvesting

In a scenario of climate changes and increasing stress upon available fresh water resources like rivers, lakes and aquifers, collecting fog water is a promising yet relatively unexplored potentiality. Providing sufficient water and reducing water extraction’s environmental impact at the same time can be a challenge with conventional ways, but fog harvesting technology presents itself as a powerful and efficient alternative. Water availability profoundly determined regional economic benefit, social relations and it also influenced environmental security and ecosystem services. Underdeveloped countries have been dealing with water scarcity issue for decades, but also wealthy countries will have to face the water crisis soon, due to unsustainable development processes. A review of the state of the art highlights the most relevant parameters to deal with when discussing about fog water harvesting. In regions with frequent fog events, this technology already proved to be a sustainable drinking water resource for rural communities and their low per capita water usage was provided by basic devices utilization. Nevertheless, in this paper, different fog water harvesting applications are investigated, besides the already existing fresh-water collection, reforestation and agricultural use. Further options, such as building components, outdoor activities and domestic devices are considered, according to different parameters, such as economic benefits, possibility of standardized production, life cycle and market attractiveness. A desirable novel concept would become relevant in specific contexts, thanks to multiple functions, offering locals designed and customized solutions. Also noteworthy are the landscape impact of such devices and the effects of the project in terms of places regeneration, raising awareness and “green” conscience creation. The study of local climatic data and improvement in fog collector applications, integration with architectural and landscape design, will expand the regions where fog harvesting can be applied and its sustainable improvements.

Study on the Evaluation of Regional Eco Economic Benefit Based on the Multi-fusion Spatial Statistical Analysis

In this paper, the economic benefits of regional ecological characteristics measurement and data structures, spatial data mining to build a data model, combined with the region's natural ecological basic elements of social and economic factors, the establishment of effective regional ecological and economic benefits of scientific assessment methods, in the method through the establishment and support vector machines based on wavelet neural network integrated hybrid artificial intelligence technology to determine the spatial weight matrix; and with the energy value analysis to construct either measure the value of natural resources, but also can measure the value of human economic activity, You can also measure data analysis model regional ecological and economic benefits of their relationship measure.

Applying uncertain programming model to improve regional farming economic benefits and water productivity

The development of optimum crop area planning is valuable for agricultural water management in the arid and semiarid regions. However, the uncertain information existing in the crop area planning system is inevitable, and it cannot be tackled through the traditional multi-objective linear programming model (MOLP). In this study, an inexact multi-objective fuzzy programming model (IMOFP) was developed, considering the multi-objective characteristics, the vagueness associated with the objective functions and constraints, and the interval uncertainty in the parameters. Three objectives were considered including maximizing benefits, minimizing evapotranspiration (ET) and maximizing water productivity (WP). The IMOFP model was applied to solve the problem of crop area planning in Wuwei city of Gansu province in China, and the optimal results under different scenarios of water-saving levels and satisfactory degrees of the decision maker (DM) for available resources were obtained. Different scenarios were also considered to make in-depth analysis of interaction among weight coefficients, economic benefit and water conservation requirement. Moreover, violation variables were introduced to analyze the relationship among system satisfaction, risk level and benefit. Results indicate that using the IMOFP model made the economic benefit, water productivity and water production efficiency of planting in the region increased by 7.05–16.65%, 25.68–33.15% and 39.22–47.59% respectively, and the ET reduced by 20.96–23.10%. Compared to MOLP model, the proposed IMOFP model has advantages in effectively reflecting uncertainties expressed as discrete intervals and fuzzy sets, and can provide reasonable solutions and more stable decision alternatives.

Viabilidade econômica da cultivar de feijão-comum BRS Estilo

<p>O presente estudo tem como objetivo avaliar economicamente a cultivar BRS Estilo, uma variedade de feijão-comum (<em>Phaseolus vulgaris</em> L.), do grupo carioca, desenvolvida pela Embrapa Arroz e Feijão e parceiros, estimando o benefício econômico regional a partir do conhecimento dos custos de geração e transferência da tecnologia e do sistema de produção. A cultivar BRS Estilo foi avaliada em quatro safras sucessivas: 2010/2011, 2011/2012, 2012/2013 e 2013/2014. A contribuição da tecnologia BRS Estilo para o agronegócio do feijão no Brasil foi de R$ 239.431.760,83, cerca de US$ 106 milhões no período analisado. O processo de transferência da cultivar BRS Estilo ao setor produtivo representa 7,5% do custo total destinado ao desenvolvimento da tecnologia, que se iniciou no ano de 2000. Além do benefício econômico proporcionado pela adoção dessa tecnologia, também houve geração de mais empregos em sua cadeia produtiva e aumento da oferta do produto no mercado.</p><p><strong>Código JEL</strong> | O13; Q16; R32.</p>

Innovative Assessments for Selecting Offshore-Platform-Decommissioning Alternatives

Summary Hard substrates associated with offshore oil and gas platforms can contribute to the productivity of marine ecosystems, thereby generating local and regional economic benefits. These benefits form the basis for incorporating the platform into a rigs-to-reefs program when it is retired or for selecting some other type of removal option. There are many options for reefing platforms, each differing in environmental impact associated with dismantling and transport of the platform structure (deck, jacket, and other subsea structures). The use of science-based decision making in exploring platform-removal options can be beneficial for all stakeholders in the context of regulatory environment, complex ecosystem, and human interactions across multiple scales. Accommodating these complexities in a decisionmaking process is the foundation of an ecosystem-based-management (EBM) approach. EBM is an environmental-management approach that recognizes the full array of interactions within an ecosystem, including humans, rather than considering single issues, species, or ecosystem services in isolation (Christensen et al. 1996; McLeod et al. 2005; Altman et al. 2011). The focus of this study is on one of Shell's former deepwater assets in the Gulf of Mexico. The fixed-jacket platform has been in operation for more than 35 years and extends to more than 1,000 ft of water depth off the coast of Louisiana. Few studies have been published on the ecology of marine life inhabiting deepwater platforms such as these. To begin to understand the specific contribution of this platform as an artificial reef, a stratified (across depth down the platform) study was performed by use of routinely collected remotely-operated-vessel (ROV) video footage to assess fish and sessile biotic communities. The ROV study revealed clear depth-related patterns of visually conspicuous epibiota (surface-dwelling organisms such as Lophelia pertusa) and numerous species of reef and pelagic fishes. These data were used to construct a matrix to rank the ecosystem services of several decommissioning alternatives, including complete removal of the deck and jacket; removal of the deck, topping the jacket 85 ft below the waterline, and leaving the remainder in place; and removal of the deck and transfer of the entire jacket to a rigs-to-reef location. This portion of the assessment provided a strategic framework for identifying and evaluating sensitive ecosystem services in association with both human and environmental drivers to provide realistic (actionable) guidance in the selection of these decommissioning options. The preliminary ranking illustrated that a high level of ecosystem services could be maintained by decommissioning alternatives that leave the jacket in place or transfer the jacket elsewhere as part of a rigs-to-reefs program.

A comparative study of urban expansion in Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang over the past three decades

Detailed comparative studies on spatiotemporal patterns of both urbanized area and urban expansion over a relatively long timeframe are rare. Here, we compared spatiotemporal patterns of urbanization in three major cities (i.e., Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang) in the Jing-Jin-Ji Urban Agglomeration using multi-temporal Landsat MSS, TM, and ETM+ images data of circa 1980, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010 integrated with Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques and landscape analysis approaches. A multi-scale analysis on the landscape responses to urban expansion from regional landscape to city and within city levels was performed. Results showed that urban area in Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang has expanded from 801km2, 795km2 and 682km2 to 2452km2, 3343km2 and 1699km2, increasing annually at 3.7%, 4.7% and 3.2%, respectively. Spatially, Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang have presented a mononuclear concentric polygon pattern, a double-nucleated polygon-line pattern, a sectorial point pattern, respectively, resulting primarily from their respective topographic constraints as well as urban planning and policy. Landscape responses to urban expansion varied with time and scale investigated, suggesting a general understanding on landscape metrics at regional or city level may fail to reveal detailed within city landscape dynamics under the impacts of urban expansion. The Jing-Jin-Ji Urban Agglomeration faces a great challenge to manage trades-offs between narrowing down intra-regional disparity and maintaining regional economic and ecological benefits.

Paradiplomacy of Regional Governments in International Relations: The Foreign Relations of the Kurdistan Regional Government (2003 – 2010)

Until now there has been relatively little systematic analysis of the foreign relations of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Based on interviews with senior officials of the KRG, this article places this activity within the conceptual framework of paradiplomacy. It argues that, in the framework of regional geopolitics and economic benefits for the Kurdistan Region from its place in Iraq, the practice of this paradiplomacy does not indicate an intention to secede from Iraq.

Toward full economic valuation of forest fuels-reduction treatments

Our goal was to move toward full economic valuation of fuels-reduction treatments applied to ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests. For each of five fuels-reduction projects in northern Arizona, we calculated the economic value of carbon storage and carbon releases over one century produced by two fuels-reduction treatments of thinning following by prescribed burning every one (Rx10) or two (Rx20) decades and for no treatment followed by intense wildfire once in the first 50 years (HF50) or once in the first 100 years (HF100). Our estimates include two uses of harvested wood, the current use as pallets, and multiproduct use as paper, pallets, and construction materials. Additionally, we included the economic value of damage and loss from wildfire. Results indicate that treatments increase carbon stock in live trees over time; however, the inclusion of carbon emissions from treatments reduces net carbon storage and thereby carbon credits and revenue. The economic valuation shows that the highest net benefit of $5029.74 ha−1 occurs for the Rx20 treatment with the HF50 baseline and the high estimated treatment benefits of avoided losses, regional economic benefits, and community value of fire risk reduction. The lowest net benefit of −$3458.02 ha−1 occurs for the Rx10 treatment with the HF100 baseline and the low estimated treatment benefits. We conclude that current nonmarket values such as avoided wildfire damage should be included with values of traditional wood products and emerging values of carbon storage to more appropriately estimate long-term benefits and costs of forest fuels-reduction treatments.

Region‐building in the arctic periphery: the discursive construction of a petroleum region

As social communities, regions are built through discourses that convey images of what the region is. Regions are built for a variety of reasons, including political and economic ones. This implies that changing economic circumstances have the potential to change the discourses on regional identities. Petroleum discoveries represent such a potential change in the economic circumstances of a region. This study of an emerging petroleum region in the north of Norway shows that a regional identity discourse is used to claim ownership over the petroleum resources in the Barents Sea in order to justify the need for a production plan that maximizes regional economic benefits. In this way, the discovery of petroleum represents an opportunity to reinforce regional identities around a set of common interests. However, “the region” is vaguely defined in this discourse, being used in reference to two different scales: Finnmark and Northern Norway.

Mineral development and regional employment effects in northern Sweden: a scenario-based assessment

This paper reports the main results of an assessment of the local and regional economic benefits of a new large-scale iron ore project that is currently being developed by Northland Resources in northern Sweden. Specifically, the mine is located in Pajala—a municipality of approximately 6,300 residents in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. We employ the Swedish regional impact model rAps to estimate the local and regional benefits of the project, focusing mainly on the employment opportunities created by multiplier effects. The rAps-system links an input–output model of regional production with a demographic model of net migration and commuting. This allows us to use a scenario-based approach and simulate the impact of different demographic assumptions, which are key determinants of the magnitude of local benefits. The local labour supply is limited and if most of the workers are non-residents who commute, much of the household incomes generated by the project flow out of Pajala and benefit other municipalities in the region. Our results indicate that the local employment multiplier for Pajala varies between 1.4 to 1.6 depending on the demographic assumptions, but the effect on local incomes is limited if labour demand is serviced mainly by commuters from other municipalities. The estimated regional employment multiplier for Norrbotten County is approximately 1.7, reflecting that the bigger and more diverse regional economy is better equipped to supply inputs to mineral development projects.

PLAYING THE MEDIA GAME

The coal industry is a high-profile and significant sector of the Australian economy that is coming under increasing criticism as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. This paper offers a Bourdieusian field analysis of major Australian newspaper coverage of the coal industry in relation to economic, political and environmental issues. Theoretically, it extends Bourdieu's field model to embrace the issue of visibility and invisibility of agents and their positions in the field, using the work of Goffman, Giddens and Ericson. Empirically it finds that both journalists and their sources actively engage with factors of invisibility and visibility in contesting the representation of coal industry interests in media coverage. Overall there is a common journalistic endorsement and visibility across all newspapers of the national and regional economic benefits of the coal mining and power generation industries, but marked differences among individual newspapers in how they position themselves and their sources with respect to climate change impacts and issues. A key factor in the contestation over the journalistic coverage is the production of visibility and invisibility for specific information and activity.

Pakistan

Pakistan

Yangtze River: China's golden waterway

The 6380 km long Yangtze River is the longest in China and third longest in the world. With more than 3600 branches it provides a total of 65 000 km of waterways, over half of the country's inland navigation network. This paper describes China's ‘golden waterway’ and its huge national and regional economic benefits. It reports on the recent channel improvement projects on the trunk line, including the Three Gorges dam and major estuary works, which have significantly increased both reliability and capacity – and resulted in a direct stimulus to economic growth. A further £4 billion of improvements are now planned.