Mapping Climate Services for Disaster Risk Management: A Systematic Review and Research Gaps from a Policy Process Perspective

Climate services (CS) are crucial for mitigating and managing the impacts and risks associated with climate-induced disasters. While evidence over the past decade underscores their effectiveness across various domains, particularly agriculture, to maximize their potential, it is crucial to identify emerging priority areas and existing research gaps for future research agendas. As a contribution to this effort, this paper employs the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology to review the state-of-the-art in the field of climate services for disaster risk management. A comprehensive search across five literature databases combined with a snowball search method using ResearchRabbit was conducted and yielded 242 peer-reviewed articles, book sections, and reports over 2013-2023 after the screening process. The analysis revealed flood, drought, and food insecurity as major climate-related disasters addressed in the reviewed literature. Major climate services addressed included early warning systems, (sub)seasonal forecasts and impact-based warnings. Grounded in the policy processes’ theoretical perspective, the main focus identified and discussed three prevailing policy-oriented priority areas: 1) development of climate services, 2) use-adoption-uptake, and 3) evaluation of climate services. In response to the limitations of the prevalent supply-driven and top-down approach to climate services promotion, co-production emerges as a cross-cutting critical aspect of the identified priority areas. Despite the extensive research in the field, more attention is needed, particularly pronounced in the science-policy interface perspective, which in practice bridges scientific knowledge and policy decisions for effective policy processes. This perspective offers a valuable analytical lens as an entry point for further investigation. Hence, future research agendas would generate insightful evidence by scrutinizing this critical aspect given its importance to institutions and climate services capacity, to better understand intricate facets of the development and the integration of climate services into disaster risk management.

Research on Policy Diffusion Path and Reproduction of River Chief System

The River Chief System (RCS) has evolved from local innovative practices to a national water governance strategy to address the current challenges in China’s water environmental management. In contrast to existing research that focuses on the strengths, weaknesses, and improvements of RCS, this study uses literature study to reveal the dynamic evolution of RCS through three phases, with RCS spreading from developed coastal areas to central and western inland regions. RCS’s diffusion path involves vertical diffusion between central and local levels and horizontal diffusion among local governments. Moreover, RCS has also achieved conceptual spillover, gradually expanding into other governance domains, such as the Lake Chief System, the Field Chief System, the Forestry Chief System, and the integration of multiple chief roles. However, it is essential to scrutinize the phenomenon of applying similar governance mechanisms to different areas, as it may result in challenges such as overburdening local governments, insufficient public participation, oversimplification of differences in natural resource endowments, and limited applicability. This study also provides suggestions on how to address these challenges. The study contributes theoretical insights and policy implications, providing a foundation for practical policy innovation.

Research on the Work-for-Relief Policy within the Scope of Comprehensive Rural Revitalization:Quantitative Analysis of Policy Texts Based on 71 Policy Documents

Work-for-relief plays a unique role in China’s journey toward modernization.From the perspectives of policy tools and interest analysis,this paper uses quantitative analysis of policy texts and integrates grounded theory to build a policy expression analysis model to discuss the current work-for-relief policy system.The study found that China’s use of the work-for-relief policy is unbalanced,and it is necessary to enhance the involvement of non-governmental sectors,as well as to fully consider the policy’s target groups and the social issues that need addressing.

SRv6 Policy业务可靠性方案探讨

介绍了SRv6 Policy、SBFD技术及5G承载网络SRv6 Policy业务可靠性方案。针对SBFD误触发问题,提出了在被动端生成BSID、部署引流策略及设置不同检测周期等3种完善措施,这些措施不仅提高了业务的可靠性,还显著提升了网络服务能力.

A quantitative study of disruptive technology policy texts:An example of China’s artificial intelligence policy

Purpose:The transformative impact of disruptive technologies on the restructuring of the times has attracted widespread global attention.This study aims to analyze the characteristics and shortcomings of China’s artificial intelligence(AI)disruptive technology policy,and to put forward suggestions for optimizing China’s AI disruptive technology policy.Design/methodology/approach:Develop a three-dimensional analytical framework for“policy tools-policy actors-policy themes”and apply policy tools,social network analysis,and LDA topic model to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the utilization of policy tools,cooperative relationships among policy actors,and the trends in policy theme settings within China’s innovative AI technology policy.Findings:We find that the collaborative relationship among the policy actors of AI disruptive technology in China is insufficiently close.Marginal subjects exhibit low participation in the cooperation network and overly rely on central subjects,forming a“center-periphery”network structure.Policy tool usage is predominantly focused on supply and environmental types,with a severe inadequacy in demand-side policy tool utilization.Policy themes are diverse,encompassing topics such as“Intelligent Services”“Talent Cultivation”“Information Security”and“Technological Innovation”,which will remain focal points.Under the themes of“Intelligent Services”and“Intelligent Governance”,policy tool usage is relatively balanced,with close collaboration among policy entities.However,the theme of“AI Theoretical System”lacks a comprehensive understanding of tool usage and necessitates enhanced cooperation with other policy entities.Research limitations:The data sources and experimental scope are subject to certain limitations,potentially introducing biases and imperfections into the research results,necessitating further validation and refinement.Practical implications:The study introduces a three-dimensional analysis framework for disruptive technology policy texts,which is significant for formulating and enhancing disruptive technology policies.Originality/value:This study utilizes text mining and content analysis techniques to quantitatively analyze disruptive technology policy texts.It systematically evaluates China’s AI policies quantitatively,focusing on policy tools,policy actors,policy themes.The study uncovers the characteristics and deficiencies of current AI policies,offering recommendations for formulating and enhancing disruptive technology policies.

Tracking direct and indirect impact on technology and policy of transformative research via ego citation network

Purpose:The disseminating of academic knowledge to nonacademic audiences partly relies on the transition of subsequent citing papers.This study aims to investigate direct and indirect impact on technology and policy originating from transformative research based on ego citation network.Design/methodology/approach:Key Nobel Prize-winning publications(NPs)in fields of gene engineering and astrophysics are regarded as a proxy for transformative research.In this contribution,we introduce a network-structural indicator of citing patents to measure technological impact of a target article and use policy citations as a preliminary tool for policy impact.Findings:The results show that the impact on technology and policy of NPs are higher than that of their subsequent citation generations in gene engineering but not in astrophysics.Research limitations:The selection of Nobel Prizes is not balanced and the database used in this study,Dimensions,suffers from incompleteness and inaccuracy of citation links.Practical implications:Our findings provide useful clues to better understand the characteristics of transformative research in technological and policy impact.Originality/value:This study proposes a new framework to explore the direct and indirect impact on technology and policy originating from transformative research.

Policy Gradient Adaptive Dynamic Programming for Model-Free Multi-Objective Optimal Control

Dear Editor,In this letter,the multi-objective optimal control problem of nonlinear discrete-time systems is investigated.A data-driven policy gradient algorithm is proposed in which the action-state value function is used to evaluate the policy.In the policy improvement process,the policy gradient based method is employed.

Inactivated H9N2 vaccines developed with early strains do not protect against recent H9N2 viruses:Call for a change in H9N2 control policy

H9N2 virus has been widely distributed in wild birds and poultry around the world since its first emergence in the United States of America in 1966(Gu et al.2017;Carnaccini and Perez 2020).The virus appeared in chickens in China in the early 1990s,and over the last two decades has gradually become the dominant epidemic subtype(Sun and Liu 2015;Bi et al.2020).Although H9N2 virus infection alone cannot cause severe disease or death in poultry,H9N2 virus-infected birds experience a degree of egg production drop and can be easily infected by other pathogens,thus causing economic losses for poultry industry.

Perception Enhanced Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient for Autonomous Driving in Complex Scenarios

Autonomous driving has witnessed rapid advancement;however,ensuring safe and efficient driving in intricate scenarios remains a critical challenge.In particular,traffic roundabouts bring a set of challenges to autonomous driving due to the unpredictable entry and exit of vehicles,susceptibility to traffic flow bottlenecks,and imperfect data in perceiving environmental information,rendering them a vital issue in the practical application of autonomous driving.To address the traffic challenges,this work focused on complex roundabouts with multi-lane and proposed a Perception EnhancedDeepDeterministic Policy Gradient(PE-DDPG)for AutonomousDriving in the Roundabouts.Specifically,themodel incorporates an enhanced variational autoencoder featuring an integrated spatial attention mechanism alongside the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient framework,enhancing the vehicle’s capability to comprehend complex roundabout environments and make decisions.Furthermore,the PE-DDPG model combines a dynamic path optimization strategy for roundabout scenarios,effectively mitigating traffic bottlenecks and augmenting throughput efficiency.Extensive experiments were conducted with the collaborative simulation platform of CARLA and SUMO,and the experimental results show that the proposed PE-DDPG outperforms the baseline methods in terms of the convergence capacity of the training process,the smoothness of driving and the traffic efficiency with diverse traffic flow patterns and penetration rates of autonomous vehicles(AVs).Generally,the proposed PE-DDPGmodel could be employed for autonomous driving in complex scenarios with imperfect data.

China’s Proactive Fiscal Policy

In contrast to the traditional Western approach to macro-fiscal management,China’s proactive fiscal policy is founded on a people-centered development philosophy and,with distinctive Chinese characteristics,is a significant policy innovation of macroeconomic management in the Chinese modernization.Although there are notable distinctions between the Western“Keynesian”and the“nonKeynesian”schools of thought,both of these approaches’core policy goals and methodological roots are the same,composing the traditional Western macro-fiscal approach.This approach faces increasing real dilemmas.China’s proactive fiscal policy,however,places greater emphasis on future potential growth rates in addition to equilibrium between supply and demand,achieving a fiscal policy transformation with a new approach.In this paper we argue that with such a new approach,China should reconsider the nature and reasonable level of the fiscal deficit,the function and risk assessment criteria of government debt,the scope and effects of reductions in taxes and fees,its approach and focus of demand management,and the costs and resulting efficiencies of policies in order to develop a new fiscal policy paradigm that is more in line with its stated goals.

Paired Assistance:Policy Rationale and Economic Performance as Illustrated by Xizang and Xinjiang

This study highlights the changing priorities of China’s paired assistance throughout the past decades,as well as its theoretical implications and economic growth effects for recipient regions.Using panel data from 32 prefecture-level cities from 1990 to 2020,this study uses the multiperiod difference-in-differences approach to examine how paired assistance has contributed to economic growth in Xizang Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.The findings indicate that,first,the implementation of the paired assistance policy has boosted economic growth in Xizang and Xinjiang.Second,paired assistance has stimulated economic growth in recipient communities by improving infrastructure.Third,paired assistance has contributed to economic growth in recipient communities by providing improved public services such as education and healthcare.Improvements to public services have a relatively smaller indirect effect in short term than infrastructure development on economic growth.Yet both education and healthcare are crucial to people’s quality of life in recipient communities.This paper has refined and broadened research on the effects of paired assistance,providing preference for future policymaking.

The Impact of the Monetary Policy During the COVID-19 in the Brazilian Banking Sector

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an outbreak on the global productive chains,transforming companies and society in general.Governments adopted anticyclical policies such as basic interest rates reduction as response.Brazil basic interest rate is denominated Selic.The application of these policies requires the protagonist of bank’s financial intermediation.This study aims to verify two events-under the perspective of the efficient markets’theory.The first is the communication of the first death by COVID-19-and the subsequent,Selic rate reduction to 2%p.a.-and its effects on bank’s shares prices.The hypotheses presented are:H1-The announcement of the first death by COVID-19 negatively impacts the banks’shares returns and H2-The announcement of the Selic interest rate-during the COVID-19-positively impacts the return of the banks’shares.We adopt event study methodology in a final sample of nine and 15 banks to Events 1 and 2 respectively.The results confirm H1 as well as the semi-strong informational efficiency market.H2 is not confirmed.Results confirm the non-effectiveness of the anticyclical policy of basic interest rate reduction.This contributes to the discussion about the impacts of COVID-19 and the efficacy of anticyclical policies.

Nationalist Trends in the Transformation of New Zealand’s Maori Language Policy

Language is an important carrier of human culture and a specific method for communication between humans.It is one of the most important symbols of human identity and flags of dividing group identity.At present,in the modern national state,the government is paying more attention to language policy and being more and more prudent to it.In the process of making and implementing language policy,the government must take into account a range of factors such as the country’s national history,politics,culture,economy,and relations between different social groups.From the mid-nineteenth century,when New Zealand became a British colony,until the mid-twentieth century,the Maori people were inspired to defend their rights and respect for themselves by the rise of Maori nationalist ideology and Maori political radicalism in a struggle that lasted more than 100 years.Until 1994,there were more than 800 kohanga reo,early childhood institutions that established Maori language instruction independent of the school system,and the nationalism drives to revitalize the Maori national language was at its peak.The process of revolution on Maori language policies in New Zealand reflects a trend of nationalist thoughts from Maori becoming more deep.Exploring the process of change in New Zealand’s Maori language policy will help to develop the study of the social history of indigenous peoples during the colonial period and will contribute to the study of the development of colonized countries and regions in the post-colonial period.The change in New Zealand’s Maori language policy has provided an important example of the preservation and revitalization of the indigenous languages of the world’s former colonies,which is of great significance for the preservation of linguistic and cultural diversity.

HELLO ASEAN Visa-free policy sparks surge of Chinese tourists to Southeast Asia

As of March 1,Malaysia,Singapore,and Thailand have all implemented visa-free entry policy for Chinese citizens,allowing stays of up to 30 days.The three Southeast Asian countries have been popular destinations for Chinese outbound tourists since the late 1980s and early 1990s.The implementation of the visa-free entry policy is expected to attract more Chinese tourists,especially young people,to travel to Southeast Asia and boost the recovery of the tourism industry in the region.

Review of China's Energy Policy in 2023

In 2023,China's energy policy primarily focused on deepening systemic and institutional reforms,enhancing energy security capabilities,strengthening energy conservation and carbon reduction,and improving the standard system.It has laid the foundation for China's policy direction,which is predicated on ensuring energy security,centered on economic construction,and aimed at achieving the carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals on schedule.In the current key tasks,China has accelerated the construction of a big unified electricity market,vigorously promoted upgrading industries for low-carbon,high-end,and intelligent development,and established carbon markets and standard systems aligned with international practices,achieving substantial progress.

COMRADES FOREVER--To Lam’s visit demonstrates that China remains Vietnam’s top foreign policy priority

On August 20,2024,General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam(CPV)Central Committee and Vietnamese President To Lam concluded his state visit to China.China was the destination for Lam's first overseas visit after taking office as general secretary of the CPV Central Committee,which clearly demonstrates that the heads of both countries attach importance to developing the bilateral relations and that Vietnam regards China as the strategic choice and top priority for its foreign policy.

On John Francis Davis and“Reticent”Policy

On the eve of the Opium War,J.F.Davis,His Majesty’s Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China,put forward“Reticent”policy to ease the Sino-British relations after“Napier’s Fizzle”.The“Reticent”policy is an informal foreign policy towards China,the main purpose of which is to safeguard Britain’s economic interests in China.However,due to the compromise of this policy,it aroused the dissatisfaction and resistance of British businessmen in China,so it was not implemented for a long time.After the“Reticent”policy failed,the British government turned to the“gunboat”policy.

Analysis of the Dynamics of Policy Changes in the International Border Cooperation Center under the Perspective of Multi-Source Flow Theory

The China-Kazakhstan Horgos Frontier International Cooperation Center has been established for nearly 20 years,and its targeted policies have gone through the stages of initiative,negotiation and modification,official operation,and optimization and enhancement.This paper explores the problems,policy,and political sources of policy changes since the establishment of the Horgos International Border Cooperation Center by applying the multi-source flow theory to find the opening of the problematic and political windows.It also constructs a model of policy change dynamics to provide suggestions on how the government should better promote the good development of China’s first transnational cooperation center.

Research on the Policy Evolution of Inclusive Education from an International Comparative Perspective

In recent years,thanks to the vigorous promotion by UNESCO,inclusive education has rapidly developed and spread worldwide.Governments across various nations have responded and implemented this approach,successively introducing laws and policies to ensure that children with special needs are better integrated into society and receive a comprehensive education.This paper begins by exploring the concept and connotation of inclusive education.Through an international comparative perspective,it conducts a comparative analysis of the policy evolution of inclusive education in China and the United Kingdom.Furthermore,it investigates the implications that advanced international policy experiences have for the development of inclusive education in China.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in China: Progress and Prospects of Research on Treatment Technologies and Policy Provisions

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are an atmospheric pollutant with a boiling point of 50˚C - 260˚C at room temperature and pressure. They are precursors of sulfur dioxide and ozone, which can seriously pollute the atmosphere and endanger human health. After the “14th Five-Year Plan”, VOCs, instead of SO2, became one of the five indicators of China’s atmospheric governance. As a result, the government’s efforts to control VOCs have increased significantly. VOCs governance mustn’t be delayed. This paper provides a comprehensive summary and analysis of VOCs governance, covering the classification of VOCs, analysis of VOC governance technology (with a focus on end-of-pipe governance technology), national policy regulations, current governance shortcomings, and a forward-looking perspective on the future direction of VOCs governance, emphasizing healthy and sustainable development.