Does digitalization mitigate regional inequalities?Evidence from China

Regional inequality significantly influences sustainable development and human well-being.In China,there exists pronounced regional disparities in economic and digital advancements;however,scant research delves into the interplay between them.By analyzing the economic development and digitalization gaps at regional and city levels in China,extending the original Cobb-Douglas production function,this study aims to evaluate the impact of digitalization on China's regional inequality using seemingly unrelated regression.The results indicate a greater emphasis on digital inequality compared to economic disparity,with variable coefficients of 0.59 for GDP per capita and 0.92 for the digitalization index over the past four years.However,GDP per capita demonstrates higher spatial concentration than digitalization.Notably,both disparities have shown a gradual reduction in recent years.The southeastern region of the Hu Huanyong Line exhibits superior levels and rates of economic and digital advancement in contrast to the northwestern region.While digitalization propels economic growth,it yields a nuanced impact on achieving balanced regional development,encompassing both positive and negative facets.Our study highlights that the marginal utility of advancing digitalization is more pronounced in less developed regions,but only if the government invests in the digital infrastructure and education in these areas.This study's methodology can be utilized for subsequent research,and our findings hold the potential to the government's regional investment and policy-making.

Use of Twitter in disaster rescue: lessons learned from Hurricane Harvey

Despite the increasingly prominent role of social media in disaster events,studies analyzing its use in rescue operations remain scanty.Hurricane Harvey hit Texas with unprecedented rainfall and flooding in 2017 and was marked by widespread use of social media for rescue requests.We conducted a survey of 195 Twitter users in Houston and surrounding communities who had requested for rescue during Harvey.The objective was to investigate our targeted group’s socioeconomic and flood exposure characteristics,report the effectiveness of Twitter,and highlight lessons learnt and suggestions made for its use in future rescue missions.Survey revealed that those requesting rescue on Twitter were better educated,employed(80%),and homeowners(81%).Majority of them were flooded(87%),but remained satisfied with current location and did not consider moving.Calling relatives and friends for rescue was most responsive and yielded higher assistance-provided rate than using Twitter.Our respondents found Twitter helpful,but identified issues such as not knowing when volunteers received their requests or whether they would send help.They suggested promoting Twitter accounts and hashtags that accept emergency requests.This study provides baseline information and actionable suggestions for first responders,community managers,and resilience practitioners to improve future rescue missions.