Search Results (4)

Transportation infrastructure serves a pivotal role in driving regional development. This study proposes a decision-making framework for rural road network planning within the context of China’s common prosperity initiative. An integrated model combining Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is developed, where DEA is employed to identify technically efficient planning alternatives and AHP is used to rank these alternatives based on social and environmental benefits. Applying the model to the case of Yueqing City, Zhejiang Province, the findings reveal that common prosperity-oriented schemes, particularly the Scheme, which emphasizes full industrial coverage and balanced equity, achieve a superior balance among construction costs, industrial coverage, regional equity, and carbon emissions. Theoretically, this research advances transportation planning by incorporating equity-focused metrics, such as the Gini coefficient, into efficiency analyses, thus promoting a socially sustainable approach to infrastructure development. Practically, the proposed method offers a systematic and actionable tool for local governments to optimize rural transportation networks in support of common prosperity and balanced regional growth. The resulting framework not only identifies technically efficient and equitable layouts but also offers planners a transparent tool for balancing cost, social equity, and environmental impact in future rural infrastructure projects. Full article

This study explores the complexities of urban planning and addresses major issues by carefully weighing four options for smart city technology, community-based development, green infrastructure investment, and transit-oriented development. Unlike traditional evaluations, our study applies the novel SWARA-WASPAS model to spherical fuzzy sets (SFSs), thus identifying and navigating the uncertainty present in decision making. This methodological approach improves the accuracy of our assessment by providing detailed information about the advantages and disadvantages of each option. Our study offers useful insights for urban policymakers and planners using carefully weighted criteria and employing a methodical ranking procedure. The aim is to provide insights for decisions that promote equity, environmental consciousness, resilience, and symmetry in urban environments. The application of the SWARA-WASPAS approach not only advances the field but also provides a strong basis for informed decision making. This improves the accuracy of our evaluations and provides detailed insights into each option’s pros and cons. Our study uses weighted criteria and systematic ranking to advise urban policymakers and planners. Our main goal is to help urban populations make resilient, environmentally responsible, equitable, and symmetrical decisions. Our research aims to further the conversation on sustainable urban development by offering a framework based on data that addresses the difficulties associated with dynamic urban environments. In the end, we want our humanized viewpoint to speak to a wider audience and inspire a shared dedication to creating cities that flourish in the face of changing urban environments. Full article

Rankings are a well-established tool to evaluate the performance of actors in different sectors of the economy, and their use is increasing even in the context of the startup ecosystem, both on a regional and on a global scale. Although rankings meet the demand for measurability and comparability, they often provide an oversimplified picture of the status quo, which, in particular, overlooks the variability of the socio-economic conditions in which the quantified results are achieved. In this paper, we describe an approach based on constructing a network of world countries, in which links are determined by mutual similarity in terms of development indicators. Through the instrument of community detection, we perform an unsupervised partition of the considered set of countries, aimed at interpreting their performance in the StartupBlink rankings. We consider both the global ranking and the specific ones (quality, quantity, business). After verifying if community membership is predictive of the success of a country in the considered ranking, we rate country performances in terms of the expectation based on community peers. We are thus able to identify cases in which performance is better than expected, providing a benchmark for countries in similar conditions, and cases in which performance is below the expectation, highlighting the need to strengthen the innovation ecosystem. Full article

The increasing interest in blockchain since the end of 2017 has induced many attempts to apply it to public sector administration. Blockchains have been shown to improve the levels of economic efficiency, security and decentralization in administration. This exploratory study examines the determinants of blockchain administration and their priorities through an analytic-hierarchy process (AHP) analysis. The priority ranking of internal factors was security, economic efficiency, and decentralization. The introduction of blockchains in the evolution of the current e-government to the future of convergent governments will be generalized through trial, error, and learning processes. As experienced both in the knowledge and information society and in the e-government development process, reforming government administration is not solely a technical problem. The study results suggest that future blockchain administration in the public sector be used in the field of e-voting to encourage citizen participation in the process of agenda-setting, to enhance the level of security and transparency of taxation, and to increase the level of equity. Blockchain technology can also be used to improve efficiency in the provision of individually oriented social welfare services. Its adoption via administrative reform may reduce the level of corruption in personnel management, recruitment, and procurement in public sector organizations. Full article