Vaasa, located on the Gulf of Bothnia, is representative of medium-sized cities on the coast of the Baltic Sea. This article discusses Vaasa's impact on the surrounding sea area and the city's reactions to the pollution of the sea. The history of wastewater treatment in Vaasa strongly suggests that first-generation environmental problems, e.g. the pollution problems caused by municipal wastewat...

The seeming dichotomy between the protection of biodiversity and the supply of ecosystem services (ESs) represents an outstanding field of research that requires a structured and detailed analysis. The paper analyzes and discusses the role of ESs within spatial planning and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) procedures through the content analysis methodology and a logical framework (LF) ...

In this paper we study the regional pattern of municipal business property tax rates in the province of British Columbia. Reduced form tax setting equations produce some evidence that municipal governments respond to tax changes in neighboring jurisdictions. However, a joint investigation of the determinants of tax base and municipal taxation decisions reveals that it is difficult to interpret ...

Municipal infrastructure is a fundamental facility for the normal operation and development of an urban city and is of significance for the stable progress of sustainable urbanization around the world, especially in developing countries. Based on the municipal infrastructure data of the prefecture-level cities in China, municipal infrastructure development is assessed comprehensively using a FA...

A field trial was performed to investigate the effect of municipal biowaste biochar (MBB) on rice and wheat growth, metal bioaccumulation, and greenhouse gas emissions in a rice paddy in eastern China. MBB was amended in 2010 before rice transplanting at rates of 0 and 40 t ha -1 in a field experiment lasting one cropping year. MBB soil amendment significantly increased soil pH, total soil orga...

Incumbent malfeasance is a major challenge in many developing democracies. Our model suggests that electoral accountability requires a media market structure incentivizing local media to report incumbent malfeasance. We test the model’s implications in Mexico, leveraging plausibly exogenous variation in the pre-election release of municipal audits revealing misallocated spending and greater acc...

An increasing body of literature explores the role of transnational municipal networks (TMNs) in governing sustainable development. As associations, one key task of TMNs is to represent their members through production and dissemination of information and knowledge concerning municipal action for sustainable development. Case studies, often emphasising best practice, are used by many TMNs to fu...

Objectives Effluents contain a diverse abundance of antibiotic resistance genes that augment the resistome of receiving aquatic environments. However, uncertainty remains regarding their temporal persistence, transcription and response to anthropogenic factors, such as antibiotic usage. We present a spatiotemporal study within a river catchment (River Cam, UK) that aims to determine the contrib...

1 Department of Pediatric Hematology,The Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Qingdao University, NO.16, Jiangsu Road, Shandong 266003, P. R. China. 2 Department of Stomatology, Weihai municipal hospital, No.70, Heping Road, Shandong 264200, P. R. China. 3 Department of Pediatric Hematology, the Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Qingdao University, No.16, Jiangsu Road, Shandong 266003,...

In recent years, cities are under increasing pressure to transform education, health care, transportation, civic engagement, public safety as well as other government services to maintain their competitiveness and improve citizen’s quality of life. This transformation is known as “smart city” initiatives. Broadband network infrastructure is an important underlying infrastructure for smart city ...