Small Local Communities Research Articles

Spatial asynchrony matters more than alpha stability in stabilizing ecosystem productivity in a large temperate forest region

AbstractAimUnderstanding the biodiversity–stability relationship has become a central issue in ecology and conservation biology. Although the stabilizing effects of tree species diversity on ecosystem productivity are well recorded in small local communities, they remain poorly understood across scales (from local to larger spatial scales). This study evaluates biodiversity–stability effects from local to larger spatial scales in a large temperate forest region, considering a range of environmental conditions and environmental heterogeneity.LocationNorth‐eastern China (c. 700,000 km2).Time period2005–2017.Major taxa studiedWoody plants.MethodsWe define stability as the temporal invariability of biomass productivity. Regional metacommunities representing larger spatial scales were developed by aggregating multiple sets of local field plots. Simple regression analysis was used to test biodiversity–stability relationships in metacommunities. Piecewise structural equation modelling was then used to disentangle the effects of diversity and abiotic variables on forest stability at local and larger spatial scales. Multiple mixed‐effects regression models were used to determine the relative contribution of individual predictive variables to stability across spatial scales.ResultsWe found that local diversity (alpha diversity) was positively related to the stability of local communities (alpha stability), whereas species turnover across space (beta diversity) was positively related to asynchronous dynamics among local communities (spatial asynchrony), regardless of whether abiotic factors were considered or not. We also found that environmental conditions and environmental heterogeneity affected forest stability across scales. The effect of spatial asynchrony on gamma stability was greater than that of alpha stability.Main conclusionsOur results imply that spatial asynchrony is a key to maintaining the stability of ecosystem productivity within a large temperate forest region. We suggest that diverse forests and heterogeneous landscapes should be sustained at multiple spatial scales to buffer the negative effects of climate change and forest degradation.

Introduction

Introduction

The anomalous electoral advantage: Evidence from over 17,000 mayoral candidacies in Poland

Relying on a dataset covering mayoral elections in Poland held over the period 2006–2018, we contribute to the ongoing debate on the anomalous sources of advantage enjoyed by certain candidates contesting close electoral races. While our analysis lends support to earlier conjectures that such anomalies tend to be confined to small jurisdictions, we also point to context-specific clientelistic strategies behind the anomalous advantage. The last is driven largely by an experience of holding a mayoral office in the 1990s, an era when Polish mayors were elected by local councils rather than directly by citizens. When interpreting these findings, we emphasize fundamental characteristics of post-transition Polish local democracy, including feudal legacy, pauperization of the electorate and decentralization of public spending. • We study electoral anomalies at mayoral elections in Poland. • Electoral anomalies characterize small local communities. • We identify the subset of mayoral candidacies largely responsible for the anomalies. • We interpret the anomalies as an expression of clientelistic relations.

Small Tourism Businesses Adapting to the New Normal

It is reasonable to state that the impact on Thailand’s economy has been severe due to the lack of international tourists. In particular, the mass-tourist destination Phuket has suffered economic consequences due to a plunge in the number of international passenger arrivals and inadequate domestic tourists to fill their places. This paper aims to identify inadequacies to help stakeholders more effectively manage tourism development amid COVID-19, as well as to contribute to the body of knowledge and establish a baseline that recommends a potential area of interest for future quantitative research. This case study utilizes a variety of primary and secondary data sources. The empirical data for this study were collected through a series of semi-structured interviews with local small business owners. After a rigorous review process, a total of 21 in-depth interviews were included in the content analysis. This research not only disclosed a high level of resilience amongst the small local business owner community but revealed that Phuket continues to depend strongly on international tourism to manage its local economy sustainably. This research offers insights into the recent tourism developments during the COVID-19 global pandemic and provides a baseline for future studies that seek to validate results through quantitative methods of inquiry. Furthermore, it offers guidance for policymakers that seek recommendations for implementing good governance strategies.

Critical Review of Data, Models and Performance Metrics for Wind and Solar Power Forecast

Global climatic changes and increased carbon footprints provided the main impetus for the decrease in the use of fossil fuels for electricity generation and transportation. Matured manufacturing technologies of solar PV panels and on-shore and off-shore windmills have brought down the cost of generation of electricity using solar energy on par with conventional fossil fuel. Initially, solar and wind power generation was envisioned for microgrids, serving small local communities. However, advancements in power electronics have now facilitated large solar and wind farms to be integrated with main power grids. In this context, hosting capacity, which is the amount of distributed energy resources a grid can accommodate, without significant infrastructure up-gradation, has gained importance. In determining the hosting capacity at a particular location, the uncertainties of wind and solar power generation play a role. Effective forecasting models using time-series weather data can be built to predict wind and solar power generation. This forecast is essential to ensure proper grid operation and control when renewable energy sources are already installed. The forecast is also useful in the planning stages for investment decisions and distribution system planning. While long-term forecasts are rarely needed for the operation of integrated grids, accurate short-term predictive models are necessary for scheduling. This paper presents an extensive review of various forecast models available in the literature. The study mainly focuses on the short-term forecast, providing a critical review of the duration of data used in each model and a synoptic comparison of their performance indices.

Grants for Local Community Initiatives as a Way to Increase Public Participation of Inhabitants of Rural Areas

Increasing the participation of inhabitants in the activities of local authorities has been one of the topics in the discussion on sustainable development for a long time. In rural development, there is also a demand for increasing the participation of inhabitants. This is possible thanks, among other things, to tools that enhance bonds in local communities, encompassing processes based on the mechanisms of the co-creation and co-production of public services, or various forms of participation in the decision-making processes of self-government. In Poland, some regional self-governments (voivodeships) have introduced solutions based on a system of grants for small local communities (villages/sołectwa) linked to deliberative participation, co-creation, and co-production processes. The goal of this article is thus to analyse the design, operation, and scale of grant mechanisms implemented by regional authorities for local communities in Poland’s rural areas (sołectwa). The first stage of the research process was a review of the literature, followed by analysis of the existing solutions and mechanisms for supporting small local communities in individual regions of Poland by financing or co-financing projects that engage inhabitants in the co-creation and co-production of public goods or services. Based on this, the key assumptions considered when creating this type of mechanism of support by voivodeship self-governments were determined. A subsequent stage of research involved analysing the case study of a solution introduced in 2016 by the Łódź regional self-government. The research results indicate that the analysed grant system model stimulates local communities that were previously passive/excluded by other programmes and that, as a result of the stable conditions of a grant contest, the process of “learning” and “imitating” the actions of the communities that succeeded occurs. The research results indicate that the proposed system of grants, which is conditionally based on the participation and co-operation of the inhabitants, seems to be an effective means of activating communities. The findings also point to features that could determine the success of the introduced grant model, such as its simplicity, limiting the bureaucracy (partially limiting the influence of local authorities on who obtains grants), and the transparency of the procedure.

Kitwe black mountain - Is Zambia realising the true value from it?

Nkana slag dump (The Black Mountain) in Kitwe, Zambia, has existed since 1931 when the copper smelter was commissioned. This 20 million tonnes of smelter slag contains about 0.34 per cent - 4.5 per cent cobalt and average 1.2 per cent copper. When Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Limited was privatised, the slag dump was purchased by Anglo Vaal Mining (90% shareholding) who built a smelter in Chambishi in 2000 to recover the cobalt and copper in the slag. The smelter operations closed in 2006 and the slag dump was later sold to Nkana Alloy and Smelting Company Limited. Various small scale illegal miners (locally called Jerabos) started illegally reclaiming the slag and selling to Chinese buyers operating small scale mineral processing plants. In the recent past, the government surrendered its 10 per cent shareholding of the slag dump to Chapamo Minerals Processing Company owned by the small scale local community (Jerabos). The substandard technologies being used by these small scale plants yield very low recoveries of about 50-60 per cent for both cobalt and copper, thus discarding huge quantities of valuable cobalt and copper which could be recovered if appropriate technologies were applied. This potential revenue to the nation in taxes is being lost. These small scale plants have not invested in appropriate advanced technology which can yield above 90 per cent recoveries because of their quest to make quick and easy money. The serious safety shortcomings at the slag dump have resulted in unnecessary loss of lives. The recent incident on 21 June, 2018 claimed 11 lives. There is need to study the physical structure of the slag dump to provide clear understanding of the safety precautions to be taken while reclaiming the material. There is, therefore, an opportunity to increase recoveries of the cobalt and copper by applying appropriate advanced technologies to process the slag. This will result in improved revenue, thus realizing the true value.

Financial behavior of united territorial communities in the conditions of decentralization reform in Ukraine

The article deals with the study of amalgamated territorial communities functioning peculiarities during the decentralization in Ukraine. It contains substantiation of the territorial community’s financial behavior as a basis for efficient administrative and financial decisions, as well as a study of the character and model of this behavior. The research of the models and peculiarities of amalgamated territorial communities’ financial behavior allows assessment and forecast of their social and economic development vectors; establishing the grounds for subsidies and opportunities for the increase of financial solvency regarding the formation of their expenses and performance of functions and assignments, laid upon them. The results of the research have emphasized the need for further scientific studies of behavioral aspects of the amalgamated territorial communities’ financial resources forming, as well as substantiation of their financial decisions for the attraction of additional proceeds. Active implementation of decentralization reform in Ukraine has started only in 2014 with creation of amalgamated territorial communities. The authors have researched the essence of the amalgamated territorial community’s financial behavior, being the basis for the establishment of its financial solvency, sustainability, as well as social and economic development. The study found that the main factor influencing the financial behavior of amalgamated territorial communities in Ukraine in terms of the priority of their budget expenditures and investment activities is the size of the community (characterized by area and population). The authors also proved that the key motives for the financial behavior of amalgamated territorial communities in matters of priority of budget expenditures and investment activities are the following: increasing their own revenues and increasing the financial independence of local governments. This actualizes the search for their own ways to strengthen financial capacity and prepare attractive offers to investors and increase the number of jobs, as well as further unification of small local communities.

The Biodiversity Paradigm: Building Resilience for Human and Environmental Health.

It is a well-established fact that biodiversity is pivotal to human and planetary health, completely entwining biodiverse natural systems into a continuum, through our food systems, into human health. This means there is an intimate connection between the biodiversity of the soil, the biodiversity and interrelationships of cultivated and wild plants and animals. This article looks through an ecological sciences perspective at the interconnections and interrelations between human health and Earth’s health. But regardless of the wide recognition of the benefits of biodiversity, we are seeing a political and economic landscape which actively runs contrary to and further erodes diversity in favor of the globalized industrial food system, seed uniformity and further centralization through false tech solutions. A food system which is responsible for both setting the preconditions for the severity of the global COVID-19 pandemic by weakening human and animal health through an explosion of non-communicable diseases. The way forward is instead shown by small farmers, local communities and gardeners who are already implementing biodiversity-based organic agroecology, which both preserves and rejuvenates the health continuum between the soil, plants, animals, food and humans. Acting as a holistic paradigm shift where diversity in all areas is cultivated for ecological resilience.

Dziedzictwo kulturowe wspólnot lokalnych w tradycji ustnej

Cultural Heritage of Local Communities in Oral History. The Base of Constructing the Social Memory 
 Local communities construct their own cultural heritage on the base of speaking traditions means as oral history. Each small community protects its own set of symbols and elements of tradition, including belief, dialect and private stories and anecdotes. The oral history performs a function of a part of social memory and sustains close social bonds among members of small communities. The article concerns the oral history’s role in preserving the cultural identity of small local communities.

THE MEMORY OF PLACES: THE SURVEY, REINVENTION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF A SMALL AGRICULTURAL ARTEFACT IN THE MOUNTAIN VILLAGE OF QUOTA, CASENTINO, ITALY

Abstract. The "history" of places exists as a stratification process of events that have occurred over time in a specific place, leaving more or less appreciable physical traces. The "memory" of the places, instead, is the result of a conscious choice of events to be handed down to future generations constructing the identity of a community and a recognisable image of places. It is in this sense that the project conducted in Quota, a mountain village in central Tuscany, Italy should be interpreted and set. The urban redevelopment process led to the design and reconstruction of a small agricultural artefact, particularly important to the local community given its location near a public fountain. Initially identified as the subject of an exercise to be conducted as part of the Thematic Seminar "Survey, redevelopment and redesign of architecture and environment", the redesign offered an opportunity to "re-invent" a neglected corner of the village taking as reference the traces of the ancient village fountains to create the plot of a new "story" involving the small local community. The reconstruction was carried out using traditional techniques with stone ashlars and cement mortar. To complete it, a corten steel staircase designed with reverse engineering methods and modelled using experimental 3D photo-modelling was created. The "Quota chestnut dryer" proved to be a virtuous process involving various subjects to enable the recovery of a degraded area, a possible model for the preservation of villages in the Apennines of central Italy, authentic sites of collective memory.

Enhancement of overloaded waste stabilization ponds using different pretreatment technologies: a comparative study from Namibia

Abstract Waste stabilization ponds (WSP) are a well-established wastewater treatment technology in Namibia. However, they are often overloaded and we still lack concepts and technologies for improvement. Therefore, this study presents the full-scale implementation of two pretreatment technologies to reduce the inflow of organic and solid loads into a facultative pond. We specifically compared the effects of anaerobic biological and mechanical pretreatment by an upstream anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor and a 250 μm micro sieve (MS). Not only in Namibia but also in most sub-Saharan countries, there is little experience with these technologies for the treatment of municipal wastewater in small and fast-growing local communities. Both technologies were tested in parallel for a period of 17 months and proved operational. While the UASB achieved better removal results with respect to chemical oxygen demand (COD) and suspended solids (TSS), the MS was more flexible in handling changing inflow patterns and had a much smaller footprint. The average total COD reductions of the MS and the UASB were 22 and 50%, respectively. TSS were removed by 45% with the MS and by 57% with the UASB reactor. Therefore, UASB and MS are viable options for the enhancement of existing WSP to reach better effluent values of the facultative pond.

The Experience of Health Culture Nurturing Activities by Small Local Community Health Leaders

The Experience of Health Culture Nurturing Activities by Small Local Community Health Leaders

Appunti per lo studio dell’impatto delle attività di navigazione sulla diffusione degli elementi culturali nel Mediterraneo Occidentale dell’età del Bronzo

The maritime dimension of the different cultures which archaeological research has defined over the years on the shores of the Mediterranean is often considered one of the most interesting elements for understanding how people moved around the Mediterranean basin during ancient times. Particularly for prehistory the need for a better investigation of the naval and nautical dimension of ancient peoples appears nowadays to be extremely urgent due to a lack of information about the Western Mediterranean that determined the birth of a diffusionist theory in accordance with the now surpassed ex oriente lux-theory. The recent development of naval archaeology as a proper discipline, and not just as a branch of maritime archaeology or commercial history, allows us to adopt a new paradigm. The possibility to examine a good number of wrecks as well as the naval iconography of the Mediterranean in the light of the knowledge we have about ancient naval technology is the base of our capability to propose a new interpretation of both the origins and the development of the ancient maritime networks that linked all peoples living around the Mediterranean coasts during the Bronze Age. On the one hand, the study of ancient ships and naval structures permits us to recognise different local traditions that originated in different places as well as to follow their development over the centuries. Further, by tracing their key elements we are able to recognise how and when some of these different traditions started to overlap or disappeared. On the other hand, the analysis of the nautical dimension of the different “cultures” of the Mediterranean, including their maritime commercial activities, nautical technology and wider relationship with the sea, permits us to recognise how, when and why we can start speaking about Levantine and Aegean maritime supremacy in the West. Far from proposing a complete interpretation of these phenomena, this paper will point to the role naval archaeology can play in the study of cultural interactions in the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. The main aim is to pose some new questions in order to surpass the utilitaristic misuse of the naval dimension of ancient Mediterranean peoples that lived around the Mediterranean shores. This is often at the base of many misinterpretations of the naval role of the great eastern realms as well as of the small local communities of the West.

Archaeological Sites in Small Towns—A Sustainability Assessment of Northumberland County

Background: Land-use change, resulting from urban expansion, has led to the unprecedented importance of rethinking our interactions with the environment in general. The consequences of anthropogenic activity on natural land, as well as sustainable land use types, is a significant concern to the detriment of small towns. In this article, I assess the changes in the urban footprint morphology of Northumberland County while evaluating the consequences of urban fragmentation on archaeological sites. Northumberland has a total population of 85,598 divided into seven municipalities and the Alderville First Nation reserve. Northumberland County is a commuting distance of one hour from Toronto, one of North America’s most important economic hubs. It is of the highest importance to measure and understand the current characteristics of land-use change and its impacts on the sustainability of small towns and local communities. Methods: A total of archaeological sites are used to test the impacts of urbanization and land-use change throughout the perimeter of Northumberland county. Spatial analysis is conducted employing spatial autocorrelation techniques (global and local) to assess the existence of hotspots of archaeological sites and the potential endangerment of these sites due to urban pressure. A hexagonal topology is used to derive a regional understanding of impacted regions within the county, allowing the richness of archaeological heritage sites as well as the possible concerns of these spatial clusters to be examined. Results: It is shown that a significant number of archaeological sites are present in Northumberland county, with a clear indication of a hotspot around Rice Lake. Future urbanization as well as land-use fragmentation may have an impact on the sustainability of these archaeological sites. It is shown that hexagonal geometries may establish relevant spatial surfaces to compare urban and archaeological sites as criteria to understand the endangerment of archaeological sites. The availability of the Global Urban Footprint (GUF) creates a particularly rigorous framework for the detection of impact on archaeological sites. Conclusion: The findings suggest that archaeological sites in small towns can benefit from high-resolution urban land-use footprints to detect impacts on archaeological sites and the relations of land-use change and intrasite management. This is of utmost importance in times of significant anthropogenic change brought by increasing urban pressure on small and medium-sized towns.

Kościół wędrowniczek

The purpose of the article is to present the history of the “wandering church” in Mętków, which shows on a microscale the strength of colloquial religiosity and religious culture in one of the small local communities in Poland. The biography of Pope John Paul II entered the history of this church, which is why it has the status of a church-relic for the faithful people, which is another interesting interpretative context.

“We Are the Poles from Former Yugoslavia.” Transformation Processes Shifted in Time—The Biographical Perspective

This paper is based on the first analysis of the 25 narrative interviews collected from March to November 2018 in small local communities in the Lower Silesia Region. All narrators belong to the families that were transferred from the former Yugoslavia in 1946 to the western lands which were incorporated to Poland. The socio-cultural conditions are significant for local development, so I present some features of localism after 1989 when the state transformation processes started. Next, I discuss the narrators’ self-identity dilemmas and make an attempt to conceptualize “migrating biography” as one of the features of living in a postmodern world.
 The aim of the whole project, but not described in this article, is to reveal the intergenerational adult learning processes seen from the insider’s perspective, as well as to describe such lives in a psychosocial and cultural context.

Emerging workforce trends and issues impacting the Virginia Community College System

The mission of community college workforce development leaders is to provide skill training in emerging high growth occupational areas supporting economic growth and changing workforce needs. This article reports the findings from all Virginia Community College workforce development leaders to identify the emerging workforce trends and issues impacting the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). The research questions focused on emerging high-demand occupational workforce skill needs and the partnerships needed to develop resources for emerging industries and technologies. The survey data show healthcare and technology skill training as the highest in-demand based occupational needs. Strong college and industry collaborative efforts were reported as necessary to provide training that increases competitive employee skills. The gap between reflection and action must be removed to provide real-world, innovative resources to training services that contribute to a skilled competitive workforce and economic progress. In the past decade, multiple studies (Cohen «Sc Brawer, 2003; Kasper, 2002; Mangum, 2008; Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, 2008) have been conducted on the future characteristics and needs of the American workforce. The U. S. Department of Labor (DOL) commissioned a study by the RAND Corporation in 2004 that projected shifting trends that would create a need for many different types of workplace skills (Karoly & Partis, 2004). The shifts and changes largely due to advances in technology have proven true, but these have developed more rapidly than predicted. The emerging workforce trends evolved so quickly that in 2008, Columbia University's Community College Research Center undertook a study focused on noncredit workforce education and contract training that questioned whether community colleges were meeting the changing workforce needs (VanNoy, Jacobs, Korey, Bailey, & Hughes, 2008). Given the historical mission of the workforce development services of community colleges as one of providing services that meet the job skill needs of diverse employers and their employees in many different regions (Cohen «Sc Brawer, 2003), it is important for community colleges to remain true to their role. Community colleges in America have continuously met demographic, economic, political, and cultural challenges. The nation's community college workforce development leaders, including those of the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), now find themselves at a monumental intersection facing major economic and technological challenges (Mangum, 2008). Across the nation, community colleges are strategically placed in rural, suburban, and urban areas that range in size from small local communities to large cities, enabling the colleges to provide access to services that enhance the economic viability of their regions. The diverse societal characteristics and demographics that exist in the nation are prevalent in the Commonwealth of Virginia, where there is a rich 40-year history of 23 community colleges combined under one governing organization, the VCCS. This article presents the results of a survey of the 22 VCCS workforce development leaders in Virginia. These leaders are the Vice Presidents and Directors who make up the Chancellor's Advisory Board for community college workforce development in Virginia. The study's goal was to identify the emerging workforce trends and issues impacting the Workforce Development Services within the VCCS. The two research questions addressed in this article are: * What are the emerging high-demand occupational workforce skill needs in economically vital sectors of the economy in the Virginia Community College System Workforce Development Services areas? * What partnerships are needed to maintain and further develop resources and professional development opportunities for emerging industries and technologies? Because of the diversity in size, culture, geography, and people served by the VCCS, the study's results allow for a broad scope of application during a time of high-paced technological changes, far-reaching economic global issues, increased workplace diversity, and marketplace shifts from integration to specialization (Karoly & Panis, 2004). …

Seeds network and collective action for the restoration and conservation of Xingu River’s springs (Mato Grosso, Brazil)

In 2017, indigenous and non-indigenous people from the Xingu-Araguaia region met in Mato Grosso to celebrate 10 years of partnership and collective action of the Xingu Seeds Network (XSN). This network originated from the Campaign `Y Ikatu Xingu, a social phenomenon concerning conservation and protection of the Xingu spring region. The river basin of the Xingu headwaters, 17 million hectares, is the main focus of XSN and it has lost five million hectares of forests and cerrados, which were converted into grain monoculture fields, within a very short period of time. The impact on the quality of the river water caused an environmental and health problem for the indigenous peoples of the indigenous lands. XSN has promoted innovative technological alternatives for recovery of permanent preservation areas (PPAs) or gallery forest and income generation for small farmers and local communities. The goal of this study is to analyze the environmental governance in the Xingu basin, paying particular attention to institutional arrangements of the Xingu Seeds Network. This analysis is grounded on the theoretical-methodological framework, contained in the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD), which offers tools for understanding the strengthening process of democratic institutions in the protection of common-pool resources. These are permanent preservation areas, in Brazilian case. This study provides a reflection of governance mechanisms, based on the "Commons Theory", in regions where socioeconomic dynamics drastically modify the tropical ecosystems that are fundamental to wildlife and human life.

A Smart Rural Project for Tourism of Madeira Island

Everywhere, there are cities, regions and countries which are struggling in order to reach a good position in terms of attractiveness, whether to catch more inhabitants or to get more visitants. All-over the world, cities like Bangkok in Thailand, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates or London in the United Kingdom, are witnessing, every year, a process of massive tourism. Many of these touristic places are very well-known as smart cities, because of their people, infrastructures, economy, governance, mobility, environment or simply their smart lifestyle. The rankings focused on the territories’ performances are on the top of the agenda at the global scale. On the opposite side of the popularity coin, there are the small places, settled in rural areas, which are struggling to keep the few inhabitants who still remain there, and to attract visitors, as a way of boosting their social and economic dynamics. In this sense, this article is focused on the study of rural areas and tourism, to understand how small local communities in rural areas can use the smart cities knowledge and through tourism promote the economical local development. It will present a project solution for tourism purposes having as case study the tiny rural settlement of Fajã de Baixo, near to the Calheta in Madeira island, Portugal. The result shows that small rural settlements have an opportunity in touristic terms, using requirements of smart mobility and environmental solutions, promoting local identity, which is their main tourist attractiveness.