As cities continue to face the increasing demands of urban transportation and the need for sustainable mobility solutions, the integration of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) with smart city infrastructure emerges as a promising approach. This paper presents a novel framework for integrating ITS with smart city infrastructure, aiming to address the challenges of urban transportation and promote sustainable mobility. The framework is developed through a comprehensive literature review, case studies, and stakeholder interviews, providing significant insights into the integration process. Our research outlines the key components of smart city infrastructure that can be integrated with ITS, highlights the benefits of integration, and identifies the challenges and barriers that need to be addressed. Additionally, we propose and apply evaluation methods to assess the effectiveness of ITS integration with smart city infrastructure. The results demonstrate the novelty and significance of this framework, as it significantly reduces traffic congestion, improves air quality, and enhances citizen satisfaction. This paper contributes to the existing literature by providing a comprehensive approach to integrating ITS with smart city infrastructure, offering a transformative solution for urban transportation challenges.

This scientific study aims to thoroughly assess the current status and evaluate key indicators influencing healthcare and the workforce in selected European Union (EU) member states. Building upon this ambitious research agenda, we focused on a comprehensive descriptive analysis of selected indicators within the healthcare sector, including healthcare financing schemes, overall employment in healthcare and social care, the number of graduates in healthcare (including physicians and general practitioners), as well as migration patterns within the healthcare sector. The data forming the basis of this analysis were systematically gathered from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Eurostat databases. Subsequently, we conducted a robust correlation analysis to explore the intricate relationships among these indicators. Our research endeavour aimed to identify and quantify the impact of these indicators on each other, with a focus on their implications for overall healthcare and the workforce in the respective countries. Based on the findings obtained, we derived several significant conclusions and recommendations. For instance, we identified that increasing employment in the healthcare sector may be associated with the overall quality of healthcare provision in a given country. These findings have important implications for policymaking and decision-making at the EU level. Therefore, we recommend that policymakers in these countries consider implementing measures to further develop the healthcare sector while also helping to retain and attract qualified professionals in the healthcare industry. Such recommendations could include improving healthcare infrastructure, incentivizing professional education and further training in the healthcare sector, and implementing policies to support healthcare provision more broadly.

This study aims to analyse the current state of library and information science (LIS) education in South Korea and identify educational challenges in building a sustainable library infrastructure in the digital age. As libraries’ role expands in a rapidly changing information environment, LIS education must evolve. Using topic modelling techniques, this study analysed course descriptions from 37 universities and identified 10 key topics. The analysis revealed that, while the current curricula cover both traditional library science and digital technology topics, focus on the latest technology trends and practical, hands-on education is lacking. Based on these findings, this study suggests strengthening digital technology education by incorporating project-based learning; integrating emerging technologies, such as data science and artificial intelligence; and emphasising community engagement and soft skills development. This study provides insights into improving LIS education to better align with the digital era’s evolving demands.

The success of a city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) depends on a combination of interconnected factors that foster innovation, collaboration and growth. Urban planning, infrastructure management and an entrepreneurial culture are essential factors for the success of cities’ Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EEs). Land use and infrastructure management create opportunities for growth and industry expansion. EEs are local, social, business, institutional and cultural stakeholders that encourage and enhance the formation and growth of new businesses, which are supported by enabling infrastructure. The objective of this study was to investigate how urban planning affects EEs in the metropolitan region, Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB), South Africa. NMB is known for poor land use management, which hinders the management of diverse spatial needs, as well as bureaucratic processes for land rezoning for commercial activity. In order to better understand the fundamental issues, a qualitative case study was conducted. The data were collected from fifteen economic development role players from NMB using semi-structured interviews combined with secondary data from the NMB Integrated Development Plan (IDP). The data analysis included thematic analysis using Atlas.ti and Claude 2.0. In order to validate the findings, qualitative data were cross-referenced with secondary sources from the NMB IDP. The key themes that emerged effect the NMB metropole’s management of infrastructure to support the EE. These include, Land use issues, Poor oversight by metropolitan leadership, Lack of infrastructure maintenance and pushing out potential investment and economic growth. The results highlight that the NMB metropole fails to prioritise land use and infrastructure challenges, impacting the NMB metropolitan area’s economic development and worsening inequality among different groups. The findings from this study add to the current research on cities’ EEs and The Right to the City Theory, which supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals 8, 9 and 11.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of infrastructure financing on economic growth in emerging markets through the application of both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. In this study, the research will employ both primary and secondary data to investigate the impact of different structures of infrastructure financing on the performance of the economy through interviews with the stakeholders and policy documents alongside quantitative data from the World Bank and the IMF. The quantitative analysis employs the econometric models to establish the effect of infrastructure investment on the GDP growth of the selected countries, India, China, Brazil, and Nigeria. Additional secondary qualitative data obtained from interviews with policymakers and financial specialists from Brazil, India, and South Africa offer more practical information regarding the efficiency of the discussed financing approaches. This paper is therefore able to conclude that appropriate management of infrastructure investments, particularly those that involve the PPP, are central to the development of the economy. However, certain drawbacks such as the lack of regularity of data and the disparity in the effectiveness of financing instruments by the regions are pointed out. The research provides policy implications to policymakers and investors who wish to finance infrastructure in the emerging economy to enhance economic growth in the long run.

Investment growth in many emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) has slowed sharply since 2010. Investment growth performance has varied significantly across different regions, however. This paper examines the evolution of investment growth in six EMDE regions, documents remaining investment needs, especially for infrastructure, and presents a set of region-specific policy responses to address these needs. It reports three main findings. First, investment growth has been particularly weak in EMDE regions hosting a large number of commodity exporters. In regions with a substantial number of commodity-importing economies, investment growth has been somewhat resilient but has also declined steadily since 2010. Second, sizable investment needs remain in most EMDE regions to make room for expanding economic activity and rapid urbanization. A large portion of these investment needs is in infrastructure and human capital. Finally, while specific policy priorities vary across regions, several policy options to address remaining investment needs apply universally. These include more, and more efficient, public investment and measures to improve overall growth prospects and the business climate. Improved project selection and monitoring, as well as better governance, may enhance the efficiency and benefits from public investment.