Back-pedaling or continuing quietly? Assessing the impact of ICLEI membership termination on cities’ sustainability actions

Over the past decade, cities have emerged as leaders in sustainability and climate protection in the United States. ICLEI, a voluntary network of local governments, played an important role driving this trend. After years of steady growth, ICLEI became a target of political opposition and its membership dropped significantly from 2010 to 2012. This begs the question of whether cities’ termination of their ICLEI affiliation diminishes their implementation of sustainability actions. Two surveys administered in 2010 and 2014 provide data on cities’ implementation of an array of sustainability actions. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) method, the impact of ICLEI termination on local governments’ administrative and policy commitments to sustainability is assessed. The results suggest that ending ICLEI membership does not significantly impact local sustainability actions, and also indicate that the durability of policy actions may be only loosely linked to the policies that justify them.     

Assessing National Discourse and Local Governance Framing of Climate Change for Adaptation in the United Kingdom

While many national governments struggle to maintain global climate change as a high priority issue, many local governments are taking action to fill the policy gaps. This study examines how local governments across the United Kingdom of Great Britain are reframing climate change. We compiled a dataset of newspaper publications covering climate change over a 10-year timeframe, plus survey and interview responses from local governance practitioners, to identify a shift in national discourse that has changed the priority level of climate change in UK local governance. This paper argues that many local governments are strategically reframing climate change as alternative issues in order to make progress in climate adaptation planning.     

Between national soft regulations and strong economic incentives: local climate and energy strategies in Sweden

This paper contributes to the current discussion on whether ‘soft’ regulation actually influences policy outcomes by examining the effects of national policy instruments on municipal climate and energy planning. Sweden has experienced shifts in the incentive context over the last decades complementing soft planning regulations with stringent conditions for getting national economic support to local energy and climate action. We hypothesize that when soft regulations are surrounded by detailed conditions for getting state support, there will be higher degrees of local institutionalization of climate and energy strategies. The importance of economic support as part of national policy is confirmed by evidence from local energy and climate strategies and from interviews with local decision-makers. We also find that specific municipal features such as earlier municipal engagement in national support programs and relevant inter-municipal networks function as drivers for the institutionalization of local action.     

Adaptation planning for sea level rise: a study of US coastal cities

Sea level rise (SLR) is expected, even without greenhouse gas emissions. As SLR is inevitable, adapting to its impacts has received increasing attention, and local governments are the key actors in this emerging agenda. This study indicates that adaptation planning for SLR should be integrated into two local major planning mechanisms in the United States: the local comprehensive plans and hazard mitigation plans. By evaluating 36 plans from 15 US coastal cities that are considered at high risk and vulnerable to rising sea levels, the results demonstrate that SLR is widely identified, but the overall quality of the plans to address it requires significant improvement. A detailed table of selected plans' characteristics is also provided as a lens on how localities tackle this challenging issue. The paper concludes with planning suggestions for coastal communities to better adapt to SLR.     

Gender differences in wayfinding in virtual environments with global or local landmarks

This study assesses gender differences in wayfinding in environments with global or local landmarks by analyzing both overall and fine-grained measures of performance. Both female and male participants were required to locate targets in grid-like virtual environments with local or global landmarks. Interestingly, the results of the two overall measures did not converge: although females spent more time than males in locating targets, both genders were generally equivalent in terms of corrected travel path. Fine-grained measures account for different aspects of wayfinding behavior and provide additional information that explains the divergence in overall measures; females spent less time traveling away from the target location, a higher proportion of time not traversing, and made more rotations when stopping than males did. Rather than unequivocally supporting male superiority in wayfinding tasks, both the overall and fine-grained measures partially indicate that males and females are differentially superior when using global and local landmark information, respectively. To summarize, males moved faster than females but did not necessarily navigate the spatial surroundings more efficiently. Each gender showed different strengths related to wayfinding; these differences require the application of both overall and fine-grained measures for accurate assessment.     

苏北乡土文化旅游产品开发研究

乡村文化是乡村旅游开发的灵魂。以江苏北部地域为靶区,在分析乡土文化概念的基础上,指出苏北乡土文化系统主要包括海洋文化、两汉文化和传统农耕文化等文化序列。以睢宁县为例,分析了小区域范围内乡土文化景观的展示形式,构建了苏北乡土文化系统的层次结构,提出了开发苏北乡土文化旅游产品的开发对策。     

Farmers’ market governance and its role on consumer motives and outcomes

Local food systems and farmers' markets across the USA have experienced unprecedented growth and development in the past 20 years. While scholarship has examined participant demographics and motives for engaging in farmers' markets, few studies have considered the coupled nature of those attending the markets with institutional governance systems used for market coordination. This study examined participation in farmers' markets under the framework of high and low market governance systems, specifically considering the demographics, values for local foods, motives for attending farmers' markets, and outcomes of the experience based on the dichotomous governance classification. Governance was characterized using four attributes: market rules or policies, paid employee(s), a rule governing geography of food origin, and affiliation with an organisation or agency. Our results suggest that market governance may impact (1) which consumers attend the market, (2) motives among those who attend the market, and (3) satisfaction outcome levels among market participants. By better understanding how the emerging governance system impacts who ultimately attends the market (and the outcomes of the experience), agencies coordinating farmers' markets and market managers can ultimately improve the market's reach and experience with greater intentionality.     

The SEAP in the city of Girona,a crossroads between boldness and pragmatism

The Covenant of Mayors has secured the commitments of over 5400 European Cities (as of December 2013) to achieving the European Union 20-20-20 climate change mitigation targets by 2020 through action at the local level. Due to the youth of the initiative, few experiences have been reported in the academic literature. We study the development of the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) in the city of Girona (Catalonia, Spain) to analyse the opportunities and challenges this process may present in a small- to medium-sized, compact Mediterranean city. This knowledge can provide information to local authorities in similar municipalities, technical teams and decision-makers at the European level interested in enhancing the performance of such plans in the future. In this article, we explain how the SEAP was developed in Girona, the main results and proposed actions, and discuss the main setbacks. We conclude that an overarching European oversight organism is advisable to coordinate and aid local efforts.     

Clashing coalitions: a discourse analysis of an artificial groundwater recharge project in Finland

The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the dynamics of knowledge production in the context of large-scale environmental projects causing local conflict. In particular, the paper analyses the discourse coalitions that formed around an artificial groundwater recharge project for the Turku Region in Finland. The material for this study consists of over 400 articles and opinion pieces which were collected from local and regional newspapers between 1999 and 2010. The articles were analysed by using Hajer's [1995. The politics of environmental discourse. Ecological modernisation and the policy process. Oxford, UK: Clarendon] discursive framework, and the analysis was complemented with the concept of knowledge coalition by Van Buuren and Edelenbos [2004. Conflicting knowledge. Why is joint knowledge production such a problem? Science and Public Policy, 31 (4), 289–299]. Results of the study indicate that knowledge coalitions were formed among the researchers, lay residents, and policy-makers, and they all utilised similar expertise-based factual arguments to support their cause. Thus, the paper participates in the academic discussion on the use and interpretation of expert knowledge in environmental policy-making by reshaping the division between experts and lay residents.     

地方政府竞争与环境规制:基于区域开放的异质性研究

随着全球化推进,各国开始不断消减贸易壁垒,环境规制程度跟着提升,各级地方政府作为环境规制相关政策执行者,国家的环境治理直接受到其环境规制策略影响。论文围绕地方政府恶性竞争导致的环境规制失灵问题,采用变截距GLS方法和Hansen提出的"门槛回归"模型,并利用我国29个省级单位2000-2013年面板数据,将地方政府竞争作为门槛变量,分析在不同门槛值下地方政府竞争、区域开放对工业环境规制的影响,并进一步研究财政收支分权和贸易政策对这种影响是否存在积极或恶化作用,力求从根本上解决地方政府恶性竞争,实现环境有效规制。研究表明:在样本期间内,财政收入分权度较低、财政支出分权度较高、贸易开放度高、金融开放度高和制度环境不完善的地区,地方政府竞争对工业环境规制的促进作用更加凸显。全国和东部地区地方政府竞争对工业环境规制呈边际递减的促进作用,中部地区表现出地方政府竞争对工业环境规制非单调性,西部地区存在对工业环境规制呈边际递减的抑制作用。总之,样本期间内地方政府竞争程度有助于全国和东部地区环境进行有效规制,中部地区跨越门槛值后环境规制失灵,西部地区则存在较严重环境规制失灵问题。为了规避环境规制失灵,我们应提高外商投资的进入环境门槛,地方政府在治理环境时,应削减对自己地区的行政垄断,推动各级地方政府跨区域环境保护合作,并由较高层级的政府来承担环境规制的财政支出责任,不断降低地方政府恶性竞争导致的环境规制失灵。