Search Results (53)

Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) are required to prepare a Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) that outlines a fiscal strategy over a four-year period in order to qualify for federal funding. However, the growing population and limited financial resources available often pose significant challenges for transportation agencies in aligning their needs with available budgets. This article examines the project selection criteria used by 20 MPOs in the Southeastern United States to identify the best practices for prioritizing projects in TIPs. Using document analysis, this study categorizes the most commonly used criteria into nine broad groups: safety and security; environmental impacts; mobility, accessibility, and connectivity; preservation; environmental justice; equity; economic factors; alignment with other plans; and local support. Many of these categories are further divided into subcategories and metrics. Despite variations in criteria, weighting, scoring, and methodologies across these MPOs, the study identifies several shared factors that support effective decision-making in regional transportation planning. These findings can help transportation planners and policymakers refine their project prioritization strategies, promote consistency, and lead to improved decision-making frameworks for future TIP development. Full article

HIV/AIDS remains a global public health concern, with a high prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) initiatives, including preexposure prophylaxis (PREP) and postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), significantly reduced HIV infections in South Africa and Nigeria. The suspension of United States (U.S.) foreign aid may impact these preventive measures. Although some emergency aid programs were exempted, uncertainty persists, impacting global health initiatives, especially in South Africa and Nigeria. This study investigates the public health impacts of the United States (U.S.) government’s January 2025 suspension of U.S. foreign aid, focusing on its implications for HIV prevention initiatives, such as PREP and PEP, in South Africa and Nigeria. We comprehensively searched keywords such as PEPFAR, PREP, PEP, HIV infection in South Africa or Nigeria, antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, public healthcare impact, 2025 Trump’s foreign aid withdrawal, titles, and abstracts in Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science. The search results were screened from 500 to 150 included articles based on their relevance and quality assessment for inclusion. The review unveiled that Nigeria maintained a continuous increase in HIV/AIDS-related deaths and new HIV infections from 1990, reaching the climax between 1999 and 2005, showing approximately 110,000 HIV/AIDS-related deaths and 200,000 new HIV infections. Notably, due to the PEPFAR intervention in Nigeria, an improved decrease in both HIV/AIDS-related deaths (45,000) and new HIV infections (75,000) was experienced from 2010 to 2023. South Africa experienced a rapid increase between 1990 and 2003 in both HIV/AIDS-related deaths and new HIV infections, reaching the climax around the early 2000s, with about 520,000 new HIV infections and 260,000 HIV/AIDS-related deaths in 2005. Furthermore, there was a continuous decline from 2005 onwards, with 50,000 HIV/AIDS-related deaths and 150,000 new HIV infections by 2023. Therefore, the suspension of this aid threatens disruptions in ARV therapy, possible increases in HIV transmission, shortages in PREP and PEP, the retrenchment of healthcare workers, the suspension of non-governmental organization activities, and the reversal of gains in vulnerable populations, reversing progress toward the 95-95-95 vision, increasing morbidity and mortality rates and financial strain on healthcare systems in these two countries. We recommend proactive measures, such as increased budget allocations for healthcare reforms, exploring local vaccine and health product development and diversifying funding sources in Nigeria, and implementing universal healthcare coverage for South Africans to mitigate the adverse consequences of aid withdrawal. Full article

In order to address the adverse impacts of climate change, international initiatives, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, are setting targets to governments and asking them to commit to take action. In pursuit of fulfilling these commitments, countries have set national goals, reflecting their policy choices, local contexts and capabilities, to fight against climate change. Given that governments implement their commitments through their budgets, environmental protection expenditures (EPEs) are the major tool that governments use to fight against climate change. This study investigated the extent to which EPEs are effective in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a major contributor to climate change. Our results provide some evidence that the increase in EPEs has led to a reduction in GHG emissions. Full article

In Poland, responsibility for educational tasks has mainly been delegated to local governments, although the state still plays a decisive role. Municipalities finance these tasks using educational subsidies and targeted grants from the central budget. Because transfers from the state budget cover an ever-decreasing share of the costs of educational tasks, municipalities increasingly need to engage their own resources. Such a situation (due to the limited funds of these units) poses a threat to the proper implementation of other tasks, which may ultimately negatively affect their sustainable development. This study aimed to determine the impact of the financial gap from implementing educational tasks on the sustainable development of communes and cities with county rights. The research primarily employed linear ordering methods and Spearman’s rho correlation. It also employed the nonparametric Kruskal–Wallis test and the Page test for trends. This study utilized two types of data: secondary data from Statistics Poland covering 2477 municipalities and primary data collected through a survey of 482 local government representatives. The correlation analysis revealed that sustainable development indicators decreased as the financial gap widened between 2012 and 2022. The highest correlation coefficients were observed in all communes combined and in cities with county rights. The weakest correlations between the financial gap and sustainable development were found in urban municipalities. Representatives of local governments had similar observations. According to 63.1% of respondents, the imbalance between funds transferred from the state budget for educational tasks and the expenditure incurred by the municipality for this purpose negatively affects the sustainable development of local governments. Full article

The sustainability of local public finances is of general interest in the context of the socio-economic transformations of recent decades. In former communist countries such as Romania, where there has been no real reform of local government, this interest is heightened by the strong disparities between administrative units that have adapted to the new context and those that, for various reasons, have become dependent on government subsidies to be able to function. Using information derived from the budget execution for 2019–2023 at the level of the administrative units in rural areas, this study analyzes the structure of income and expenditure budgets. The territorial disparities are demonstrated by typological analyses showing strong regionalization, with a well-defined income or expenditure structure profile. In the same sense, multivariate analysis which uses a series of illustrative demographic and socio-economic profiles as explanatory variables shows significant correlations with the structure of local budgets. It is thus possible to distinguish certain regional patterns, depending on the level of development, geographical position, or quality of infrastructure. The study results demonstrate the need for genuine administrative reform to reduce the dependence of local budgets on subsidies and increase their self-sustainability, especially in rural areas. Full article

The high rate of depredation of forest resources causes major climatic changes that affect the economic activities and health of populations, plunging them into poverty and social problems. The state is responsible for dealing with these problems, because it has the technical, legal, and economic power to do so. This research aims to identify the factors that limit the design and formulation of public policies for the conservation of natural resources at the level of local district and provincial governments in Peru. For this study, we used qualitative methodology and non-probabilistic sampling, as well as techniques such as unstructured interviews, focus groups, and documentary review; moreover, for data analysis, we applied the theoretical saturation design in grounded theory. The results show that the conservation of natural resources is not positioned as a priority public policy in municipal administrations; furthermore, the organic units of natural resources suffer financial restrictions, and not because of a lack of budget availability, but because of a lack of will and decision-making capacity of authorities and civil servants, as well as a lack of coordination between the different national governments. It concludes that there are conflicts of interest in public policy making, with abuse of power and corruption predominating. Furthermore, the complexity of addressing sustainability criteria and the inability to confront the environmental crisis mean that international summits and national norms are attenuated in the face of the problems of environmental degradation. Deforestation should be considered a major public priority problem because of its environmental, economic, social, and health impacts. These problems require a holistic approach that combines local, national, and international policies and fosters effective and participatory governance. Full article

To understand potential sources and losses of nitrogen from farming systems in Darusa, Bangladesh, a detailed survey of farming practices was conducted. A total of 100 households were randomly selected using demographic and agricultural information about the farmers in the study area. Data were used to stratify the farmers according to their operational land holding, livestock numbers (tropical livestock unit), use of irrigation, age, and educational level. Four clusters of farm households were identified, and nine households were randomly selected from each cluster for a total of 36 households. These 36 households completed more detailed surveys about their cropping and livestock. The surveys identified local practices of nitrogen management in different crops and types of livestock. Further information on traditional practices for soil fertility management was obtained by interviewing selected farmers. The results show that the major use for organic residues from crops and livestock is to provide fuel. Crop residues were used as fuel by 84% of farmers, with 23% using all of their crop residues as fuel. Some manure was used as fuel by all farmers, with 56% of farmers using most of their manure as fuel. As a result, 23% used no crop residues and 56% used less than half of their manure to improve soil fertility. This suggests that recycling of nitrogen in the study area is low. Soil analysis indicates that the organic matter and nitrogen contents of the soil in the study area were only 1.43% and 0.08%, respectively. Therefore, further recycling of organic residues should be practiced in order to reduce losses of available nitrogen from the system. More research is needed to quantify nitrogen lost by these practices and to draw up a full nitrogen budget for the study area. Full article

Integrated agricultural water management (IAWM) encompasses multiple factors, necessitating the evaluation of performance across programs and involved entities and local consideration in different regions. This study analyzes the relation of allocation budgets and government agency programs in relation to the average annual availability of groundwater in Guanajuato State. Documentary investigation was conducted on public programs, aquifer availability, and agricultural land types over the period from 2017 to 2023. In the last six years, the amounts allocated to government programs from subsidies and donations have increased by 40%, leading to enhanced agricultural productivity in the state. Considering the agricultural types (rain-fed, irrigated, and protected) as separate variables, simple linear regression explains 97.8% of the variability in the DMA, indicating a decrease of 78.2 million m³ and an increase in irrigated agriculture. The estimator for the budget allocated to public programs is −2.21 × 10⁻⁷, indicating that even if the resources allocated to government programs related to the use and exploitation of water in the agricultural sector increase, the DMA will continue to decrease. Regarding the agriculture area type, the estimator has a value of −0.00237, indicating that each rain-fed or irrigated agriculture unit established would result in an approximate reduction of 2370 m³ of water in the DMA. Taking this into account, it is imperative to formulate strategies that consider intersectoral links, with a focus on prioritizing essential actions in rain-fed areas for water capture and/or irrigated agricultural areas for food production, which comprise 52% of the total land dedicated to the agricultural sector, and specifically targeting actions that promote groundwater management. Full article

This paper discusses the financial determinants of the efforts of local government units (LGUs) to invest in the area of energy transition (ET). The main objective is to verify the links between the scale, directions, and funding sources of LGUs’ investments in ET and their budgetary situation described by the level of income independence, budget result, and debt level. The general research hypothesis assumes that the ET investment activity of LGUs is associated with their financial situation. The analysis covers the period 2019–2022 and uses data from the questionnaire-based survey conducted in 2023 among 181 LGUs in the Podkarpackie region in southern Poland. Non-parametric tests were employed to verify the association between the LGUs’ ET investment activity and their financial situation: the Chi² test, the Mann–Whitney U test, the Kruskal–Wallis test, and the Kendall’s Tau correlation. Financial aspects were shown to influence the scale of municipal ET investments, as well as the type of projects implemented. Among the analysed financial indicators, the debt level was the most important constraint for LGUs to make their own ET investments. The debt level not only determined the scale of municipal ET investment, but also influenced decisions on the type of investments. Full article

The local land use carbon budget (LUCB) balance is an important factor in achieving regional carbon neutrality. As the basic unit of China’s economic development and social governance, the county level is an important part of the realization of the “double carbon” goal. This paper focuses on 1069 county units within the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB). It utilizes data on land use, nighttime light, energy consumption, and social and economic factors to construct carbon emission models. The spatiotemporal characteristics of LUCB in these county units are analyzed using standard deviational ellipse (SDE) and spatial autocorrelation methods. Additionally, a zoning study is conducted by examining the economic contribution coefficient (ECC) of carbon emissions, the ecological support coefficient (ESC), and their coupling relationship. The results show that (1) the total land use carbon emissions (LUCE) increased significantly during the research period, and the total carbon sink was relatively stable. (2) The LUCB is spatially high in the east and low in the west, with the center of gravity moving to the southwest as a whole. (3) The LUCB shows positive spatial autocorrelation and has significant spatial agglomeration characteristics, which are mainly high–high and low–low regional agglomeration types. (4) The ECC is high in the east and low in the west, the ESC is high in the west and low in the east, and the coordination and coupling degrees of the two are low. (5) According to the ECC and ESC, the county unit is divided into a low-carbon conservation area, an economic development area, a carbon sink development area, and a comprehensive optimization area. This study is helpful in promoting the sustainable development of carbon neutrality and low carbon in the YREB. Full article

In line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.2, South Africa’s National Development Plan commits to providing high-quality early childhood education to all children by 2030 to drive improved child outcomes. Prior to 2016, South Africa lacked reliable, locally standardised, valid, and cross-culturally fair assessment tools for measuring preschool quality and child outcomes, suitable for use at scale within a resource-constrained context. In this paper we detail the development and evolution of a suite of early learning measurement (ELOM) tools designed to address this measurement gap. The development process included reviews of literature and other relevant assessment tools; a review of local curriculum standards and expected child outcomes; extensive consultation with government officials, child development experts, and early learning practitioners, iterative user testing; and assessment of linguistic, cultural, functional, and metric equivalence across all 11 official South African languages. To support use of the ELOM tools at scale, and by users with varying levels of research expertise, administration is digitised and embedded within an end-to-end data value chain. ELOM data collected since 2016 quantify the striking socio-economic gradient in early childhood development in South Africa, demonstrate the relationship between physical stunting, socio-emotional functioning and learning outcomes, and provide evidence of the positive impact of high-quality early learning programmes on preschool child outcomes. To promote secondary analyses, data from multiple studies are regularly collated into a shared dataset, which is made open access via an online data portal. We describe the services and support that make up the ELOM data value chain, noting several key challenges and enablers of data-driven change within this context. These include deep technical expertise within a multidisciplinary and collaborative team, patient and flexible capital from mission-aligned investors, a fit-for-purpose institutional home, the appropriate use of technology, a user-centred approach to development and testing, sensitivity to children’s diverse linguistic and socio-economic circumstances, careful consideration of requirements for scale, appropriate training and support for a non-professional assessor base, and a commitment to ongoing learning and continuous enhancement. Practical examples are provided of ways in which the ELOM tools and data are used for programme monitoring and enhancement purposes, to evaluate the relative effectiveness of early learning interventions, to motivate for greater budget and inform more effective resource allocation, to support the development of enabling Government systems, and to track progress towards the attainment of national and global development goals. We share lessons learnt during the development of the tools and discuss the factors that have driven their uptake in South Africa. Full article

Climate change is already a reality, and it is affecting the lives and livelihoods of many people globally. Many scientists argue that adaptation is, therefore, necessary to address the impact of climate change on life-supporting systems. Climate change adaptation, however, is a complex process that involves transformations implemented through governance at multiple levels. In this paper, the barriers to climate change adaptation in South Africa are presented and analysed. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted telephonically and online via Microsoft Teams with 13 government officials working at the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment; the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs; and the uMkhanyakude District Municipality. The findings suggest that the barriers to climate change adaptation in South Africa include inadequate financial resources, a lack of human capacity at the provincial and local levels, limited political will at the local level, limited understanding of climate change adaptation issues by communities, inadequate coordination across government levels and sectors, no legal mandate at the local level, no climate change unit at the district and local levels, a lack of knowledge by some staff members tasked with environmental duties at the local level, not enough climate change plans in place at the local level, and outdated information on climate change used in the IDPs. This paper, therefore, recommends that climate change be a standing item in the Integrated Development Plan for local governments, which will ensure that climate change is budgeted for appropriately. In addition, this paper suggests that a mandate for climate change adaptation be developed for all three government levels. There is also a need for the government to invest in capacity development and improve horizontal and vertical coordination to strengthen the weak climate governance capacity that exists. Full article

This article deals with the development of renewable energy sources and their role in the transformation of energy. The main purpose of this article is to analyze the role of local governments in Poland in accelerating energy transformation at the local level through the implementation of municipal investments. The potential activities of the municipalities in the area of local eco-energy were presented, with particular emphasis on their own investment projects. The involvement of municipalities in the implementation of their own projects in the area of energy transformation was assessed, and the sources of financing for such projects were determined. A diagnosis of barriers and limitations to the increase in the participation of communes in this area was also made. This research was carried out in the Podkarpackie and Lublin regions in southern Poland. The research results indicate that local government authorities are willing to accept contributing to eco-energy projects, but only when nonrepayable funds are involved in the financial assembly. In such a situation, they are also willing to seek loans as a source of bridge financing or financing the unit’s own contribution. Financial constraints are of key importance for municipal investments in the area of energy transformation. Among the internal factors that hinder the investments of communes in the area of energy transformation, financial constraints (budget) were definitely dominant. These limitations far exceeded the costs associated with energy planning, as well as the spatial and location barriers felt by local government officials. Full article

Actual evapotranspiration modeling is providing useful information for researchers and resource managers in agriculture and water resources around the world. The performance of models depends on the accuracy of forcing inputs and model parameters. We developed an improved approach to the parameterization of the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model using the Forcing and Normalizing Operation (FANO). SSEBop has two key model parameters that define the model boundary conditions. The FANO algorithm computes the wet-bulb boundary condition using a linear FANO Equation relating surface temperature, surface psychrometric constant, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The FANO parameterization was implemented on two computing platforms using Landsat and gridded meteorological datasets: (1) Google Earth Engine (GEE) and (2) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center Science Processing Architecture (ESPA). Evaluation was conducted by comparing modeled actual evapotranspiration (ETa) estimates with AmeriFlux eddy covariance (EC) and water balance ETa from level-8 Hydrologic Unit Code sub-basins in the conterminous United States. FANO brought substantial improvements in model accuracy and operational implementation. Compared to the earlier version (v0.1.7), SSEBop FANO (v0.2.6) reduced grassland bias from 47% to −2% while maintaining comparable bias for croplands (11% versus −7%) against EC data. A water balance-based ETa bias evaluation showed an overall improvement from 7% to −1%. Climatology versus annual gridded reference evapotranspiration (ETr) produced comparable ETa results, justifying the use of climatology ETr for the global SSEBop Landsat ETa that is accessible through the ESPA website. Besides improvements in model accuracy, SSEBop FANO increases the spatiotemporal coverage of ET modeling due to the elimination of high NDVI requirements for model parameterization. Because of the existence of potential biases from forcing inputs and model parameters, continued evaluation and bias corrections are necessary to improve the absolute magnitude of ETa for localized water budget applications. Full article

The MODIS 8-day composite evapotranspiration (ET) product (MOD16A2) is widely used to study large-scale hydrological cycle and energy budgets. However, the MOD16A2 spatial resolution (500 m) is too coarse for local and regional water resource management in agricultural applications. In this study, we propose a Deep Neural Network (DNN)-based MOD16A2 downscaling approach to generate 30 m ET using Landsat 8 surface reflectance and temperature and AgERA5 meteorological variables. The model was trained at a 500 m resolution using the MOD16A2 ET as reference and applied to the Landsat 8 30 m resolution. The approach was tested on 15 Landsat 8 images over three agricultural study sites in the United States and compared with the classical random forest regression model that has been often used for ET downscaling. All evaluation sample sets applied to the DNN regression model had higher R2 and lower root-mean-square deviations (RMSD) and relative RMSD (rRMSD) (the average values: 0.67, 2.63 mm/8d and 14.25%, respectively) than the random forest model (0.64, 2.76 mm/8d and 14.92%, respectively). Spatial improvement was visually evident both in the DNN and the random forest downscaled 30 m ET maps compared with the 500 m MOD16A2, while the DNN-downscaled ET appeared more consistent with land surface cover variations. Comparison with the in situ ET measurements (AmeriFlux) showed that the DNN-downscaled ET had better accuracy, with R2 of 0.73, RMSD of 5.99 mm/8d and rRMSD of 48.65%, than the MOD16A2 ET (0.65, 7.18 and 50.42%, respectively). Full article