Pedestrian street and its effect on economic sustainability of a historical Middle Eastern city:The case of Chaharbagh Abbasi in Isfahan,Iran

Pedestrianization is an urban revitalization strategy to enhance sustainability and livability in car-oriented cities.Despite many studies in this research field,the effects of pedestrianization on the economy of cities in developing countries still need further investigation.Additionally,the impact of this strategy on the tenant mix of com-mercial and historical areas in Middle East countries is nebulous.To address these inadequacies,we considered Chaharbagh Abbasi street,located in the heart of Isfahan,Iran,and investigated the impact of a pedestrianization project with particular emphasis on how it affects the economic sustainability of existent commercial fabric.Pre-and post-project data along with field observations and quantifications used to assess structural replacements in trade,were analyzed with SPSS and ArcGIS software.The results revealed unexpected outcomes,such as the closure of some traditional businesses(27.5%),a stagnation in sales(69%)and a decrease in job offers(84%)leading the local economy to a fragile situation.Conversely,it was found that the footfall volume increased by 64% and 73% from the retailers’and pedestrians’viewpoints.This evolution along with a wide opening of food and beverage stores(approximately 60%)makes the post-pedestrianization results more promising than earlier predictions.In conclusion,these findings reinforce the importance of pedestrian streets in revitalizing economic activities in historical and commercial areas from the perspective of economic sustainability.Due to the lack of similar investigations in Middle East countries,these findings can support decision-makers and urban planners to take preventive measures in preserving the diversity of individual small shops for upcoming urban rehabilitation projects in terms of pedestrianization.

Integration of Transport and Land Use Planning by Transit-Oriented Development for Economic Sustainability of the Standard Gauge Railway Projects in Tanzania

Tanzania is one of the countries in Africa that has engaged in the projects for construction of the electrified Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). However, lack of integration of transportation and land-use planning threatens economic sustainability of the SGR project. This study was carried out for the purpose of finding-out how transportation can be integrated with land-use planning for economic sustainability of the project. The study was carried-out by using qualitative research approach through demonstration as case study. Findings show that construction of the SGR is not integrated with land-use planning around the stations and along the SGR corridor. It is concluded that economic sustainability of the SGR projects can be achieved by integration of transport and land-use planning. As demonstrated, it is recommended to deliberate for integration of transportation and land-use planning in the SGR projects of which the prime land within Transit Stations can be efficiently used by using Transit Oriented Development and secure more land for production activities around the Transit Stations and along the SGR corridor.

Simulating the Impact of the Economic Sustainability Plan on the Performance of the Nigerian Economy in the Post COVID-19 Era

This study examines the impact of Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) on the performance of the Nigerian economy as a national economic resilient policy in the post COVID-19 era within the framework of a macro-econometric model. The study is hinged on the Keynesian general theory of employment, income and interest. Annual time series data spanning from 1970 to 2019 for within sample forecast, and a six-year out-of-sample forecast spanning from 2020 to 2025 were used. The policy scenario of 21.3 percent increase in government expenditure under the ESP as a stimulus package was simulated and the findings showed that increase in government expenditure under the ESP in critical areas would bring about significant impact on the macroeconomic performance of the Nigerian economy, especially on employment, inflation, economic growth and balance of payment in the post COVID-19 era. Emergent from these findings, the study recommended among others that the government should mobilize resources to finance the ESP in order to stimulate the economy in the post COVID-19 era by ensuring prudential fiscal management of resources;and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should ensure that financial institutions saddled with the responsibility of disbursement of intervention funds reduce interest rate from 9 percent to 5 percent as reflected in the ESP.

Measuring Impact of Lean Manufacturing Tools for Continuous Improvement on Economic Sustainability

Using Lean Manufacturing(LM)tools in production processes is crucial for companies’economic,environmental,and social sustainability success.This study shows a structural equation model(SEM)that shows the relationship between LM Tools like Kaizen(KAI),Gemba(GEM),Value Stream Mapping(VSM)and Key Performance Indicator(KPI)with Economic Sustainability(ECS).Seven hypotheses were evaluated with data from 179 responses to a questionnaire about the Mexican maquiladora industry,showing that these variables are linked.At a 95%confidence level,the model was evaluated using the partial least squares method.The findings indicate that the relationships between KAI and GEM and KAI and VSM have the strongest relationship,followed by VSM and ECS;however,VSM has the strongest effect on ECS.Based on these findings,it is recommended that managers adopt a continuous improvement(KAI)approach based on working directly on the shop floor(GEM and VSM)to support their decisions regarding economic growth(ECS).

Conjuncture Cycles and Monetary Anomalies Are Unwelcome Guests for Sustainability

Economic cycles are not economic evils but rather healing agents for returning to equilibrium,just as inflation and deflation are not economic misfortunes but the sign of bad governance and a bitter medicine for returning to calm monetary.Unfortunately,signs of poor governance are mistaken for unfortunate events,but are instead tools offered to restore economic systems.Politics seeks consensus and does not accept the bitter cure of recession.Monetary policy is therefore called into question even if monetary anomalies also depend on errors in the management of the economy;the result is the gradual increase in interest rates.Is the idea that we can achieve the goal of complete neutrality with nature acceptable in a global economic framework pervaded by inflation and denunciation?Can we similarly argue that economic problems can coexist once the goal of neutrality has been achieved?The answer is negative.We must correct these anomalies and dysfunctions of the economy,which cannot coexist in the new context of complete and indefinite equilibrium of tomorrow.And not even the idea that conflicts can be resolved with war seems to find a place in the renewed scenario of neutrality.In this regard we can remember that,when we have reached the economic optimum of complete neutrality,or at least we are close to it,the most socially and economically advanced territories and continents will benefit from an acceleration of productivity and development.Scarcity itself will give way to the new,long-awaited reality.A condition that approaches the state of abundance and which will produce surpluses to be allocated to countries and territories that are struggling towards the condition of neutrality.The acceleration of lagging continents and the recovery of altered economic systems are therefore preconditions that can allow us to access the state of global neutrality.As we get closer to the great objective,it is to be believed that the pretense of regulating conflicts through war will also disappear.With the new reality of abundance,the economic reason for war disappears,while the aspiration of peoples-inscribed in their DNA-for solidarity and peaceful aggregation towards substantial unity becomes clear.

Sustainability Assessment of Banana (Musa spp.) Yield Gap Reduction through Value Chain Development Interventions in Smallholder Farming Systems in Manicaland, Zimbabwe

This study evaluated the effectiveness of donor supported agricultural value chain development projects in sustainably narrowing yield gaps for banana smallholder farmer producers in Manicaland, Zimbabwe. The study used a mixed methods research design that relied on farmers records for the quantitative analysis and focus group discussion and in-depth interviews for key experts for the qualitative aspects. A mix of regression analysis, t-tests, Pearsons’s correlation and analysis of variance statistical methods were used for the quantitative analysis while thematic response analysis was used for the qualitative engagements. The findings showed that by the end of the activity, the project had successfully narrowed the banana yield gaps to 18.66 tons per hectare working with a potential yield base of 40 tons. However, 5 years after the project closure the yield gap had fallen to 24.7 tons indicating a lack of sustainability of yield gap reduction. However, the yield gap slump does not override the fact that farmers on average were still able to sell approximately 5 tons per every 6 months after 5 years from the project closure which is beyond any poverty threshold. This suggests genuine upward economic mobility. Additionally, in analyzing what factors had the greatest influence on yield gap reduction, the access to fertilizer ranked highest where genetics, irrigation and improved agronomy followed in that respective order. The study further showed that farmers who receive value chain development support whilst at an already commercialized state tend to maintain productivity thresholds higher in comparison to those who are at a pre commercial state. This is evidenced by the fact that the pre commercial farmers had a yield reduction of 30.83 percent after 5 years of the project closure whereas the former realized a productivity growth of 7.84%. In conclusion, whilst the intervention was successful in transitioning farmers out of poverty, more investment should be made towards transitioning smallholder farmers to integrated soil fertility management practices and improvement of agronomic efficiency through stronger on field collaboration between research institutions, the government and development institutions.

SUSTAINABILITY OF ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE COMING CENTURY

Since the advent of the 1990s,there has appeared in the world an East Asia-centered“Asia-Pacific craze”.All people have been paying attention to and study-ing the“East Asian miracle”or the“East Asian phenomenon”.In the whole post-Cold War world,“the scene is uniquely beautiful”in East Asia as is compared withall other regions on earth.It can be said that the region is now in the best time ofits economic and political development in modern history.

Assessing the adequacy and sustainability performance of multi-family residential buildings in Anambra State,Nigeria

The proliferation of multi-family residential building in Anambra State of Nigeria due to increasing demand without recourse to performance has broughtconcerns about the adequacy and sustainability of this housing type.This study therefore,assessed the adequacy and sustainability performance of multi-family residential buildings in urban areas of Anambra State.The study sampled the opinions of 384 households living in multi-family residential buildings through a questionnaire survey.We conducted data analysis based on 214 responses that were useful for analysis.The study found that internal and building component variables and supporting neigh-borhood variables were adequate,but the surrounding environment variables were inadequate based on Mean Score Index.However,based on Sustainability Performance Index,the occupant sperceived social sustainability performance of the buildings as satisfactory,while environmental and economic sustainability performance were perceived as fairly satisfactory.The Pearson correlation coefficient result further established that adequacy of internal and building component variables was significantly and positively related to the residents'perceived social sustainability performance.Adequacy of the surrounding environmental variables was also found to be positively and significantly related to the residents'perceived environmental sustainability performance,whereas adequacy of supporting neighborhood facilities was found to be negatively and significantly related to the residents’perceived economic sustainability performance.This sug-gested that investors and owners of multi-family residential buildings should direct more efforts towards improving the surrounding environment to supplements other facilities and increase the economic benefit of the renters or occupiers with increasing economic sustainability performance in terms of value for money.

Economy Function in the Mode of Sustainable Development

To implement the previously formulated principles of sustainable economic development, all solutions of the linear system of equations and inequalities, which are satisfied by the vector of real consumption, are completely described. It is established that the vector of real consumption with the minimum level of excess supply is determined by the solution of some quadratic programming problem. The necessary and sufficient conditions are established under which the economic system, described by the “input-output” production model, functions in the mode of sustainable development. A complete description of the equilibrium states for which markets are partially cleared in the economy model of production “input-output” is given, on the basis that all solutions of system of linear equations and inequalities are completely described. The existence of a family of taxation vectors in the “input-output” model of production, under which the economic system is able to function in the mode of sustainable development, is proved. Restrictions were found for the vector of taxation in the economic system, under which the economic system is able to function in the mode of sustainable development.

THOUGHTS ON CONSTRUCTING THE DEMONSTRATING AREAS OF THE ECOLOGICAL REBUILDING AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN HEXI REGION

Based on the field investigations, this paper analyzes systematically the achievements and problems of constructing the demonstrating areas of the ecological rebuilding and economic sustainable development in Hexi, Gansu Province, and then the thoughts on constructing the demonstrating areas are brought forward. It is considered that all kinds of ecological demonstrating areas should be merged in order to construct large scale characterized demonstrating areas which go beyond the district. In other words, in Hexi Region, Zhangye District should be constructed as the largest ecoagriculture demonstrating area of high technology; Wuwei District should be constructed as the largest ecological demonstrating area of agricultural comprehensive exploitation; JiuJia District, which is the shortened form of Jiuquan and Jiayuguan, should be constructed as the largest ecotourism demonstrating area; and Jinchang City should be constructed as the largest ecoindustry demonstrating area. At the same time, the constructing pattern should be selected according to the actual circumstances; science and technology should be applied to construct the demonstrating areas and accelerate the industrialization in the big market. Additionally, it is important to smooth the constructing system and implement the flexible and efficacious running mechanism, and it is suggested that the committee should be organized to administer the ecological demonstrating areas in Hexi Region.

Cooperative Game Among Cities in Urban Agglomerations and Economical Sustainable Development

This paper analyses redounded profits of cooperation and non-cooperation among cities in urban agglomerations based on game theory. It discusses the problems of economical development among cities with feeble cooperation, and deduces the conclusion that only cooperation of cities produces the maximum profits and realizes Pareto efficiency for cities and urban agglomerations. The paper states that cooperation is the cornerstone of economic sustainable development in urban agglomerations in profits produced by cooperation among cities. Some suggestions to accelerate cooperation among cities are proposed.

Study on Energy Issues Regarding Sustainable Economic Development of China

Over the past twenty years China has made astonishing achievements in theenergy domain and the total output of coal,electricity and petroleum ranked respectively thefirst,second and fifth place in the world.China has established a strong energy base and resolvedthe energy supply to most villages and farmers to prop up the development of China''s economy.

The Sources of Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan African IDB Member Countries

The economic growth in Sub-Sahara African （SSA） IDB member countries has been encouraging over the last decade; however, it is still not high enough to enable these countries to overcome the persistent poverty. There is thus a need to raise substantially real GDP growth rates on a sustained basis, both through the productivity channel and factor accumulation such as labor and capital. This study focuses on ＂the source of economic growth in SSA IDB member countries＂ with the objective of identifying the main driving factors of economic growth in the region using the growth accounting framework and extending the existing analysis both by country and time coverage. The paper is expected to be useful for the policymakers in the region to have a clear picture on the main sources of growth, and thus help them in identifying strategic reform areas of intervention in line with the most binding factors of growth. The data used in this study cover 20 Sub-Sahara African countries covering the period 1990-2012. The data set includes real GDP, labor force, and capital stock. The source of data is the various version of the World Economic Outlook, IMF. Capital stock is estimated using perpetual inventory method and the base year is 1970. In estimating growth accounting model, a translog production function is applied using panel data and random effects model. Empirical results show that the capital accumulation is the most important individual factor in GDP growth （52%） followed by workforce accumulation （39%） while total factor productivity （TFP） accounts for meagre 8%. This suggests that, on average, real GDP growth in Sub-Sahara African countries was driven primarily by factor accumulation with a low level of TFP. In addition, the elasticity of labor was lower than that of capital indicating that the labor played very little role in GDP growth most likely due to unskilled labor force or mismatch of labor skills with the production process. Furthermore, this also adversely affects both the TFP growth and the share of capital growth to the GDP growth. The results indicate that the critical constraint to the economic growth appears to be poor labor skills that lead to both low labor productivity and under-utilization of capital stock.

Solutions for Sustainable Economic Development inHo Chi Minh City

Sustainable urban development is becoming the top concern of the nations in making and implementing the development policy systems.Sustainable urban development is a harmonious,effective development process with three pillars:economic development,social inclusion,and environmental management effectively.Vietnam is a rapidly urbanizing country.This process makes Vietnam’s cities face many major problems and challenges,especially sustainable economic development.Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam’s largest city.It is the dynamic city with the fastest socio-economic development rate of Vietnam.The development of Ho Chi Minh City plays an important role in the overall development of the whole country.However,in the assessments of the authorities and experts,Ho Chi Minh City is growing slowly and facing many big problems.Based on the analysis of the City’s potentials and advantages as well as the difficulties and challenges of the new development context,this paper recommends groups of solutions for sustainable economic development in Ho Chi Minh City in the next decades.

Rural sustainable development:A case study of the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone in China

Sustainable development is the central theme of modern global development.With the arrival of the urban era,the vulnerability and instability of rural areas have significantly increased,and rural sustainable development faces serious challenges.To address these issues,the study took the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone in China under the National Sustainable Development Agenda as a case,combined with economic,social and land use data during 2016-2020,and applied Granger causality test method to explore the theoretical and practical pathways of“innovation-driven rural sustainable development”.The results showed that rural sustainable development and economic sustainability displayed a trend of synergistic change,with“explosive”growth from 2018 to 2020.The social sustainability steadily increased from 2016 to 2020.Ecological and spatial sustainability continuously declined during the study period.Moreover,the rural innovation capacity of the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone displayed rapid growth during 2016-2020.Although the rural innovation capacity of the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone has rapidly improved,it has a weak driving effect on rural sustainable development and economic sustainability.There are two primary challenges that must be overcome to ensure the rural sustainable development of the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone.The first challenge is the imbalance among the multi-dimensional relationships in the process of rural sustainable development,and the second challenge is the weakening of rural innovation capacity to drive rural sustainable development.To overcome these challenges,this study proposed a systematic pathway for rural sustainable development in the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone from multidimensions,such as policy actions,technologies,projects,and institutional guarantees,and formed a universal and representative“Zaozhuang model”.This study expands the theoretical foundation of rural sustainable development and provides theoretical and practical support for innovation-driven rural sustainable development.

Spatio-temporal characteristics of regional sustainable economic growth drivers of China

Intellectual capital(IC)has become a universal performance indicator for the socioeconomic development of countries and regions.Based on a review ofnational intellectualcapital(NIC)and regional intellectualcapital(RIC)evaluation literature,we used the regional intellectualcapitalindicator(RICI)as a model for China’s RIC evaluation to indirectly understand China’s potential economic growth drivers.Specifically,we collected statisticaldata of31 provinces(including municipalities and autonomous regions)in China from 2004 to 2016to measure RICI and analyze its dynamic characteristics from temporal and spatial perspectives.In this paper,Delphi analysis was used to construct RICI model,and cluster analysisand exploratory spatial data analysis were used to analyze the temporal and spatial characteristics of RICI in China.The results showedthat RICI,which represents China’s overall economic growth drivers,increases annuallyand is consistent with economic developmentlevelduring the study period.Regarding the geo-spatial space,RICI follows the trend of“high in the east and low in the west”,gradually decreasing from eastern to western China.ForRIC structure,the shape of the radar chart of IC structure located in the eastern coastal areas is usually biased towards strong external relational capital,while that in western China is generally biased towards structural capital.For spatial correlation,China’s RICI has dependence on geographical adjacent space and economic space.Our research can provide policy suggestions for the sustainable development of regional economy from an IC perspective.

Analysis on the Environmental Factors of Sustainable Economic Development

1. China’s environmental problems 1) Serious water pollution. Water is most indispensable to people’s life. Contaminated water will seriously affect people’s normal life and cause environmental degradation, putting people in the danger of catching various diseases. Therefore, everyone should save water and make full use of it. However, in China, water pollution is getting worse. China has abun-

Five Areas for Sustained High Economic Growth in China

Afierhavingexperiencedtwodecadesofsustainedhigh.economicqrnwthwillithppossibleforChinatoseecontinuedsustainedhigheconomicgrowthinanother10to20years?Followingtheeconomicslowdowninthepastfewyears,manyholdpessimisticviewsonthis.Inaninterviewwithacorresp...

Resource constraint,sustainable economic growth pattern and transformation of economic system in China

Over the past 20 years, China has made spectacular achievements in economic growth as well as in thetransformation of economic growth pattern. Industrial structure is being updated, and technology is playing a more andmore important role in economic development. The energy and resource consumption in many industries and enterprisesare reducing. However, we should realize that there are still many problems in changing the economic growth pattern,such as high input, high consumption, high discharge, inharmony, recycling difficulty, and low efficiency, which havegreatly impaired and restrict Chinese economic development. Therefore, the fundamental change of the economic growthpattern is inevitable. Based on the analysis on the status quo and the exploit of resources, this paper suggests that thetransformation from unsustainable to sustainable growth is the only choice in changing the economic growth pattern. Inaddition, the transformation should not completely rely on the fundamental effects of market mechanism. We should makefull use of the power of governments to speed up the transformation of economic system.