Sustainable Development Of Municipalities Research Articles

Migration and municipal sustainable development planning framework in the city of uMhlathuze, South Africa

Internationally, migrants encounter a multitude of obstacles in the countries they settle in, including being denied access to essential services and economic prospects due to restrictive laws that undermine their ability to contribute to the fulfilment of the 2030 global agenda. While it is crucial to incorporate migration into development goals at all levels, the integration at the local government level is still incomplete. This research utilises the notion of global governance and employs a qualitative case study approach to conduct an explorative investigation of the difficulties pertaining to the integration of migration into municipal development plans. A total of 20 individuals engaged in municipal development planning were interviewed. The data was collected by reviewing municipal strategic plans. Thematic analysis was employed for data analysis. The study findings indicate that the lack of current migration data, negative attitudes towards migration, and insufficient coordination among parties responsible for development planning are the primary obstacles to integrating migration into municipal development planning. The exclusion of migrants has significant ramifications for municipal planning. Not only does it contradict the 2030 global goal, which recognises migrants as catalysts for sustainable development, but it also renders municipal planning inadequate and unsustainable. The discoveries aided in the creation of the Migration and Municipal Development Planning Framework. The framework has substantial ramifications for municipal planning since it delineates the actions that local municipalities could take to seamlessly incorporate migration issues into development planning, along with the anticipated results. The framework is a unique and valuable addition to the existing knowledge since it offers a fresh viewpoint on the relationship between migration and sustainable development, specifically at the level of local government.

School in the Rural Municipality as an Issue of Politics: Czech Mayors' Attitudes towards the Role and Support of the Local Elementary School

Abstract Public elementary schools in rural municipalities represent key institutional amenities for the communities they serve, and their administrations are part of the broader municipal political structure. This article focuses on the views of Czech mayors regarding the role schools play for municipalities and a consideration of how school operation practice can produce positive outcomes for school and community. Schools have proven to be important local institutions with many social functions for which municipalities have various support tools and strategies. We argue that the good functioning of the school strongly depends on the local political representation’s support. The rural school incorporates both an investment in the physical environment of the municipality and a strategic investment in the human capital for the future generations, and sustainable development of municipalities.

A platform sandbox for the assessment of municipal sustainable development goals

Purpose This study aims to present an innovative sandbox platform that implements a decision support system (DSS) to assess the sustainable development goals (SDGs) addressed at the municipal level. It intends to determine the relative importance of each SDG in municipalities and explore the synergies that can be discovered among them. Design/methodology/approach Participatory action research is used to develop a DSS and an algorithm designated as discrete heavy fuzzy was also developed, which extends the Apriori algorithm to include discrete quantitative assessments of the level of SDG compliance by each project. A scenario consisting of three municipalities in Portugal (i.e. Porto, Loulé and Castelo de Vide) was chosen to demonstrate the implementation of the sandbox platform and to interpret the observed results. Findings The results reveal significant differences in the typology of SDGs addressed by each municipality. It was found that municipal sustainable projects are strongly influenced by the contextual factors of each municipality. Porto has projects that address the first five SDGs. Loulé appears projects that promote innovation, the fight against climate change and the development of sustainable cities. Castelo de Vida has initiatives related to innovation and infrastructure and decent work and economic growth. Research limitations/implications This study provides knowledge about the relative importance of the SDGs in Portuguese municipalities and explores the synergies among them. The proposed sandbox platform fills the gaps of the ODSlocal Webtool by proposing a dynamic and interactive approach for the exploration of quantitative indicators regarding the implementation status of the SDGs established in the 2030 Agenda. Originality/value This study provides knowledge about the relative importance of the SDGs and the various synergies that exist between them considering the Portuguese municipalities. The sandbox platform presented and developed within this study allows filling the gaps of the ODSlocal Webtool that gathers essentially qualitative information about each project and offers a dynamic and interactive exploration with quantitative indicators of the implementation status of the SDGs established in the 2030 Agenda.

Management of sustainable development of municipalities based onthe project approach

Management of sustainable development of municipalities based onthe project approach

Municipal Programs and Sustainable Development in Russian Northern Cities: Case Studies of Murmansk and Magadan

Cities play an important role in promoting sustainable development. In the Arctic, most particularly in Russia, cities concentrate the majority of residents and economic activity. Sustainable development initiatives are often deployed through programs that operate at different spatial and jurisdictional scales. While national and regional policies and programs have received some attention, the understanding of urban development policies and programs at the municipal level in the Arctic is still limited. This paper presents a case study of municipal sustainable development programming in Arctic cities and examines municipal programs in two larger Russian northern cities: Murmansk and Magadan. While both are regional capitals and the most populous urban settlements in their regions, the cities have district historical, economic and geographical contexts. Through the content analysis of municipal programs active in 2018, we aim to understand, systematize and compare the visions and programmatic actions of the two municipalities on sustainable development. Ten sustainable development programming categories were identified for using a UN SDG-inspired approach modeled after the City of Whitehorse, Canada. While the programs in Magadan and Murmansk are quite different, we observed striking commonalities that characterize the national, regional and local models of urban sustainable development policy making in the Russian Arctic.

Estimation of entity‐level land use and its application in urban sectoral land use footprint: A bottom‐up model with emerging geospatial data

AbstractLand is an essential resource tomaintain the functioning of the socio‐economic system. Due to sectoral land data limitations, previous studies were primarily restricted to a coarse sectoral level or focused mainly on the global and national scales. However,fine‐scale land use data are required to provide tailored implications for municipal sustainable development. With emerging geographic data and novel methods, including point of interest data, road network data, and natural language processing, a bottom‐up model is developed to estimate the entity‐level artificial impervious land use. Then, we conducted a case study in Shanghai to investigate the spatial features, footprints, and intensities of sectoral land use. Our results indicated that 42 sectors in Shanghai had diverse spatial patterns. The transportation sector had the highest level of agglomeration among all sectors, and the manufacturing industry's adjacent land patches had higher sectoral heterogeneities than the service sector. The transportation sector had the largest direct and embodied land use footprint. The residential‐related sectors had higher land use intensities, while the high value‐added service sectors showed lower land use intensities. Our study indicates that this model offers a novel way of extracting entity‐level spatial land use information and is applicable for socio‐economic metabolism research. Future studies could incorporate remote sensing images and multiple databases to achieve higher resolution.

An Overarching Model for Cross-Sector Strategic Transitions towards Sustainability in Municipalities and Regions

Municipal and regional governments can play a key role in global society’s transition towards sustainability. However, municipal leaders often lack a sufficient overview of sustainability and thereby the capacity to coordinate efforts across sectors. Several municipal planning frameworks are available but vary greatly in terms of definitions, scope, and hands-on advice on processes. To complement and unify approaches, the framework for strategic sustainable development (FSSD) has been developed. It utilizes backcasting from operational boundary conditions for the full scope of social and ecological sustainability. This study aims to evaluate a recently developed model for long-term implementation of FSSD across sectors for more cohesive cooperation towards sustainability. This is done through participatory action research (PAR) in ten Swedish municipalities and regions. The evaluation is done to examine if the implementation model (i) lives up to its purpose to help sectors cooperate effectively by using the FSSD as a shared mental model, (ii) aid the handling of previously identified barriers to strategic sustainable development in municipalities and regions, (iii) may contain barriers of its own for appropriate use and (iv) has room for improvement. We used observations, dialogues, and surveys to capture the strengths, weaknesses, enablers, and barriers of the preliminary implementation model. While the compliance of the model varied, our findings show a general appreciation and identified the needs for the approach. From experiencing barriers for the application of the model, practitioners provided several ideas for additional support, such as assessment and alignment support of on-going work and further developed guiding material. In a second phase of the PAR project, application of the implementation model will continue, and such additional support will be developed and evaluated.

Sustainability indicators for municipal solid waste management: A case study of the Recife Metropolitan Region, Brazil.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Brazil faces major challenges in order to meet the requirements proposed by the National Solid Waste Policy, which has been in force since 2010 and complicates decision-making, especially in small municipalities. In this context, sustainability indicators are important support tools that help in setting out performance actions for municipal sustainable development. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the four sustainability dimensions (social, environmental, economic, and legal/institutional) using sustainability indicators for MSW management in the Recife Metropolitan Region (RMR) in Northeast Brazil. To do this, the progress of the region was evaluated against the principal goals and guidelines proposed by solid waste plans and by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It was found that some progress has been achieved in recent years, such as the closure of dumps, a reduction of the per capita MSW mass collected, and an increase in the coverage rate for solid household waste collection. However, selective collection and financial autonomy still fall well short of the region's goals. According to the results of this study, municipalities in the RMR require more environmental education and joint actions involving government, the private sector, and the general population.

Multi-Scale Evaluation of Suzhou City’s Sustainable Development Level Based on the Sustainable Development Goals Framework

A sustainable development system involves resource limitation, environmental stress and policy regulation, and the flow and integration of resources and factors on a multi-level spatial scale. However, it is difficult to meet the actual needs of local development through traditional single-scale and macro-scale evaluation of the comprehensive level. Taking Suzhou City as an example, based on the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs) framework, the entropy method and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) were used to construct an evaluation index system of the municipal sustainable development level. Growth and obstacles of the sustainable development system and its subsystems were systematically analyzed on a multi-level spatial scale. Results show that during the study period (2000-2016), the sustainable development system in Suzhou was relatively low at the beginning of the study. With the passage of time, it generally developed in a stable, continuous, and balanced direction. The levels of development, deficiencies, and obstacle factors of sustainable development systems and their subsystems are significantly different between levels; especially during the study period, the order change between towns is significantly higher than the order change between districts. Within an evaluation unit, there is a process of rising and continuing growth among certain subsystems, but some subsystems have been developing slowly due to resource constraints, environmental load, etc., or their contribution to the level of sustainable development has remained low. The city sustainable development evaluation index system based on the SDGs framework can meet the requirements of regional assessment and has the potential for further promotion and use. The evaluation results can provide a necessary reference for the subsystem coordination, scale linkage, and resource space allocation of the sustainable development system in Suzhou.

Indicators of sustainable development of Santa Catarina mesoregions: a comparative analysis

Purpose: This study aims to analyze the sustainable performance of Santa Catarina mesoregions from the sustainable development indicators proposed by the Santa Catarina Federation of Municipalities (FECAM).
 Methodology: To analyze the sustainable performance of the Santa Catarina mesoregions, a descriptive, documentary and quali-quantitative research was conducted. The study sample comprised the six mesoregions of the state of Santa Catarina, namely, Serrana, Norte Catarinense, Oeste Catarinense, Sul Catarinense, Vale do Itajaí and Grande Florianópolis. Data from the Municipal Sustainable Development Index - IDMS were collected on the FECAM website and comprise the year 2018. The analysis considered the descriptive statistics and correlation techniques.
 Results: The results reveal a state formed by 5 mesoregions that have a sustainable performance considered low-median, and 1 mesoregion with a sustainable average performance, which consists of the Vale do Itajaí mesoregion whose IDMS was 0.625. This result is generally reflected in the low rates of environmental management, economic dynamism and wealth distribution, demonstrating that the Economic and Environmental dimensions deserve attention from municipal public managers, as they were located between Medium-low and Low sustainable development. Neither of the four dimensions nor the consolidated IDMS of Santa Catarina mesoregions is classified with sustainable performance considered High or Medium-high. Overall, there was a slight worsening in the development of the mesoregions between 2016 and 2018.
 Contributions of the Study: By assessing the sustainable development of the mesoregions, the study contributes to the literature on regional indicator systems and sustainable regional development, allowing the understanding of the sustainable performance process of the municipalities that make up these mesoregions, as well as enabling the monitoring and the comparability of this performance. The study also contributes to the implementation of results-oriented management, which is the main indication of the new public management, whose emphasis is on the effective use of information.

Геоинформационный анализ агломерации Кавказских Минеральных Вод: градостроительные и функционально-планировочные аспекты

The article presents the results of research on the formation and development of the functional and planning structure of the urban agglomeration of the Caucasian Mineral Waters, as an integral part of the settlement system of the Stavropol territory and the North Caucasus Federal district. Theoretically, the authors rely on the concept of a single settlement system and a reference frame as a combination of nodal and linear elements that Express the main features of the territorial organization of the region. The paper uses various sources of quantitative and qualitative information on the Stavropol territory as a whole, the region of Caucasian Mineral Waters and individual municipalities: results of sociological surveys of the population, census data, information about the current socio-economic and demographic situation of the territory, materials of state and departmental statistics, documents of territorial planning and urban planning, own observations and results of “field” studies of the territory. Based on these data, a General characteristic of the CMS agglomeration is given, the spatial organization of settlement is analyzed, and current trends in its development are determined. One of the results of the study is a geographic information model of the agglomeration, which sets its boundaries and composition, calculates the coefficient of development, and makes a demographic forecast for the agglomeration as a whole and for individual municipalities. The model of spatial organization of the territory was based on the planning framework of the region, including social, economic, environmental, and transport frameworks. The territory of the agglomeration, despite its high level of formation, differs in significant contrasts, which makes it possible to distinguish different zones within it by the level of urban development and the role in the agglomeration. Using the methods of geoinformation mapping, maps of the agglomeration boundaries and transport accessibility of its cores were created, as well as a perspective structural and planning model of the CMS region. The authors come to the conclusion that the design decisions for the development of territories within the CMS agglomeration, given in the documents of territorial planning and urban planning of municipalities, should be based on the main function of the region — ecological and resort, which gives it the status of a region of Federal significance. Therefore, the measures set out in the territorial planning documents of each municipality must be interconnected (both in terms of hierarchical subordination and in the General context of agglomeration development of the territory) for the sustainable development of municipalities and the entire agglomeration, the preservation of the environment and cultural heritage.

Análise de sustentabilidade no município de Parauapebas – Amazônia, Pará, Brasil

Este artigo tem por finalidade analisar o grau de Desenvolvimento Sustentável do município de Parauapebas, localizado no estado do Pará em uma região de grande importância de exploração mineral na Amazônia. Nesse contexto, análises de sustentabilidade urbana são de difícil execução, dificultando a implantação de políticas públicas orientadas ao desenvolvimento sustentável no município. Diante dessa problemática, elaborou-se uma análise de caráter quantitativo por meio do cálculo do Índice de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Municipal (IDSM) das três dimensões que compõe o tripé da Sustentabilidade: Social, Econômica e Ambiental. Para isso, utilizou-se uma metodologia de cálculo comparativo envolvendo variáveis coletadas em bases oficiais que representam os cenários em níveis municipal e estadual, possibilitando um confronto de realidades regionais com a cidade estudada. Os resultados evidenciaram um valor de IDSM médio de 0,71, medida classificada como aceitável. Por fim, analisou-se a eficiência da metodologia utilizada em relação ao demonstrativo real do cenário social, econômico e ambiental encontrado no município que possui uma das maiores riquezas minerais da América Latina.

Социально-экономическая характеристика муниципального образования в контексте теории устойчивого развития

The research analyzes the sustainable development of municipalities in the context of the unstable ex-ternal environment, scarce resources, and innovative trends at the state level. The paper discusses vari-ous approaches to studying the problems of region-al and municipal sustainable development. The au-thors examine relevant international models focused on various economic growth factors and conclude that these models cannot always be applied to the meso-level systems such as municipalities. The study reveals that environmental and location fac-tors with a social and economic potential have a considerable impact on the sustainability of munici-palities. The challenges of sustainable economic and social development of Nizhnevartovsk and Nizhnevartovsky District are described. The recom-mendations are proposed to improve the policy on sustainable development of municipalities.

Desenvolvimento sustentável municipal e financiamento bancário:

A preocupação com o desenvolvimento sustentável no mundo e no Brasil possibilitou a criação do Programa Municípios Verdes no Pará que combate o desmatamento no estado e fomenta a gestão ambiental. Este trabalho objetiva analisar a relação do nível de sustentabilidade dos municípios verdes paraenses com os financiamentos bancários para a promoção do desenvolvimento sustentável. A pesquisa foi realizada por meio da correlação de Pearson, a partir da criação dos Índices de Desenvolvimento Sustentável de 13 municípios com os financiamentos bancários liberados em 2010. Os resultados obtidos apresentaram índices entre 0,3773, considerado como nível de Alerta, e 0,5310 como nível Aceitável, o que evidencia a fraca relação de maior nível de sustentabilidade municipal com a obtenção de financiamentos bancários direcionados a esse fim. O estudo aponta a necessidade dos bancos reverem suas linhas de financiamentos para o desenvolvimento sustentável municipal para a promoção do desenvolvimento econômico, social, cultural e ambiental.

Sustainable development of municipalities: financial assurance infrastructure

In the conditions of modern challenges, the issues of infrastructure support for the sustainable development of territories of all levels and, above all, their primary basis - municipal formations, acquire special significance. The research is based on the hypothesis of the relationship between the quality of infrastructure provision of municipalities, including their budgetary and managerial potential, and the sustainable social and economic development of the territory. Accordingly, the authors consider models of interaction between all subjects of economic and social ties of territorial formation, their innovative component and the nature of inclusion in the ensuring of sustainable development of municipalities. The recommendations on the formation of the financial security infrastructure with a view to ensure sustainable development of municipalities are also presented.

Improving the management of sustainable development of municipalities in the Kaliningrad region

The paper describes the study of the process of managing the development of municipalities in the Kaliningrad region that were conducted by the Ministry for Municipal Development and Internal Policy of the Kaliningrad region, the Association “Council of Municipalities of the Kaliningrad region”, and the Regional Economic Development Agency of the Kaliningrad region, as well as proposals based on them to improve the process of local sustainable development of the municipalities of the region.

The R.I.E. procedure as a tool for sustainable development in municipality of Bolzano (Italy)

Human progress implies in its conception a progressively more invasive intervention in the sphere of nature. Without an endeavour to conciliate progress with the idea of sustainable development, a substantial number of areas, above all the ones recognized as problematic, would be subjected to an important ecological damage. Legal regulations represent the most binding and cogent instrument to relate the idea of sustainable development to man’s will of progress, mirroring the involvement of local authorities in improving the quality of life. The aim of the article is to present positive practices of the application of the R.I.E. procedure (It. Riduzione dell’Impatto Edilizio, En. Reduction of Construction Impact).The implementation of the R.I.E. procedure allows for appropriate solutions to help maintain the highest level of ground permeability. This aspect of new investments’ planning is of fundamental importance, i.e., in areas struggling with the problem of floods or overflows. The present publication adopts the case study method in order to demonstrate the applicability and the positive consequences of the implementation of the R.I.E. procedure as an obligatory tool of the local law practiced since the year 2004 in the Italian municipality of Bolzano.

Practical approval of the rating assessment of the budget potential of the territory

In the article the authors consider the issues of ensuring sustainable development of territories on the example of municipalities, methods of monitoring and evaluating the rating of a municipality, in particular, investigate the possibility of compiling a comprehensive rating for assessing the budget potential of a territory in order to analyze its impact on sustainable development. The authors also analyze the satisfaction of the population of municipalities with the activities of local authorities, including on the basis of an assessment of budgetary performance indicators. The authors suggest possible directions for applying the approved methodology for rating the sustainable development of municipalities to form a territory development strategy.

Индикаторы устойчивого развития муниципальных образований: подходы к конструированию и практической реализации

Индикаторы устойчивого развития муниципальных образований: подходы к конструированию и практической реализации

Sustainability indicators for municipalities of megacities: Integrating health, safety and environmental performance

The sustainability assessment of public sector organizations including municipalities, with a focus on the integration of health, safety, and environmental (HSE) issues in the context of sustainability performance indicators, has almost remained underexplored. Moreover, since a large number of the activities of megacities’ municipalities have directly to do with HSE issues, there seems to be a substantial gap in the study of megacities and corresponding local public administrations. The present study is aimed at developing a performance evaluation tool, supported by indicators, to monitor the HSE aspects of sustainable development in the municipalities of megacities. To put the proposed tool into practice, a set of performance evaluation indicators is proposed to be adopted in Iranian municipalities, integrated in the megacity of Tehran. The selection process was conducted by employing Delphi technique. In doing so, a 2-round questionnaire was responded by qualified experts to select the most robust indicators of HSE performance and evaluate the priority of each indicator. A total of 80 indicators were generated and grouped into 13 categories, 29 sub-categories, and 7 themes- (Health (H), Safety (S), Environment (E), Health-Safety (HS), Health-Environment (HE), Safety-Environment (SE), and Health, Safety and Environment (HSE)). Findings indicate that amongst the overall average score of the 13 categories, “Fire and emergency response” is the most important category, closely followed by “Waste”, “Transportation”, and “Natural systems” categories. Moreover, among the 7 proposed themes, the integrated “HSE theme”, nearly followed by “safety theme”, plays the most significant role in enhancing the HSE performance of sustainability in Tehran municipalities. It is concluded that in the HSE context of the megacities municipalities under scrutiny, social aspects of sustainability gain more attention in comparison with the environmental ones. Furthermore, in municipalities of megacities, the indicators related to health and safety could be considered as ‘key indicators’ and should be thus classified into independent categories so that their roles can be highlighted in the management and assessment of municipal sustainable development.