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Dec 6, 2021

Benchmarking ride-hailing regulation in global cities using mixed-method approach and social practice theory

Ride-hailing or private hire has been around the globe for a decade now but even less in Asia. Singapore has had more than three revisions to its ride-hailing regulation in the six years since the arrival of the disruptive technology, the most for an Asian city. Often quoted in the list of cities with a commendable public transport policy, Singapore still manages to find a viable and significant position for ride-hailing. Singapore, to a large extent, has formulated a successful model based on current market parameters and, more importantly, an adaptive one that evolves constantly with the continually disruptive technology. But how does this compare to cities around the globe? Global cities have formulated different policy regulations for the sector, with each one of them enjoying varying degrees of success and failure. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach using qualitative and quantitative data, Singapore’s ride-hailing sector was benchmarked with chiefly nine global cities. The qualitative data was analyzed using the 3-element model of the social practice theory as an alternative to conventional behavioral studies, thereby eliminating bias on the commuters and rather shifting focus to the practice. The findings were validated by statistical analysis of quantitative data, namely, trip information from the ride-hailing sector in Singapore and driver earnings. The unique addition of the research to ride-hailing policy is the comprehension of the commonalities and patterns across industrial and technological disruption, practice and policy irrespective of sectoral variations thanks to the utilization of the social practice theory. The first-of-its-kind policy exercise in the sector can be repeated for any city, which is a direct testament to the simplicity and exhaustivity of the methodology, benefitting both operators and investors through equitable policy formulation.

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Jun 10, 2021

Basic residential neighborhood infrastructure financing in Nigeria urban cities: Community development associations (CDAs)-based approach

The study examined the community-based approach to finance basic public infrastructures in residential neighborhoods. The primary objectives of the study were to determine the condition of public infrastructures, the level of community engagement, the modalities of financing and the prominent influencing factors. The study adopted convenience sampling and questionnaire survey techniques. A total of 120 questionnaires were administered to residents of selected high-income communities (HICs) and low/medium-income communities (L/MICs), out of which 48 (80%) and 52 (86.67%) were retrieved, respectively, and analyzed. The study deployed descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation models and mean weighted score to analyze the data. The study found that the residents were satisfied with the security of the neighborhoods but deplored the state of the public potable water infrastructure in both communities. However, the residents in the HICs enjoy a better condition of road infrastructure compared with L/MICs. The residents in both communities indicated a high level of involvement in the financing of public infrastructures, with major engagement in security and waste disposal/management infrastructures. However, the HICs engaged more in road grading/maintenance, while the provision of community potable water was given as a priority by the L/MICs. The major mode of financing basic communal infrastructures is through membership levy/contribution, and prominent influencing factors are cooperation among members, fundraising and income status. Therefore, while private-sector support funds, such as from the CDAs, help in cushioning the effects of basic infrastructure decay, governments at all levels should provide an enabling environment that will motivate mutual communal relationships through integrated infrastructure policies.

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Apr 11, 2019

Rising incomes and inequality of access to infrastructure among Latin American Households

The question of infrastructure needs is a crucial policy one in Latin America, given evidence of large access shortfalls across all major types of infrastructure, and the increase in demand linked to the rapid growth in households’ income over the past two decades. However, how much and how fast countries should invest in each of the main infrastructure areas are largely speculative, as to date, literature on investment needs has relied exclusively on aggregate data and cross-country regressions, ignoring both potential policy and supply-side differences across settings, and variations in demand along the income distribution. This paper addresses these shortcomings, providing building blocks to better assess infrastructure investment needs across the region. It does so documenting access to services and ownership of infrastructure-related durables in the water, energy, telecom, and transport areas, based on harmonized household survey data covering 1.6 million households in 14 Latin American countries from 1992 to –2012. It provides a systematic disaggregation of access and ownership rates at different levels of income and over time, and econometrically derives the country infrastructure premium, a measure of how much a household benefits from simply being located in a given country. Within countries, the results show extensive inequality of access across the income distribution, but this is also the case for households at similar levels of income across countries. Few country fundamentals appear to be significant in explaining this variability, pointing to differences in policy choices and local constraints as important determinants. The paper derives disaggregated income elasticity measures for the full set of infrastructure indicators and uses these to estimate the time that would be needed to close the remaining gap for households at different levels of the income distribution in each country under a “business as usual” hypothesis. Under that scenario, universal access appears to still be decades away for many countries in the region. The last part discusses the policy challenges, arguing that in a context in which public budgets face strong constraints and significant increases in private investment are unlikely to be forthcoming, a large part of the solution lies in refocused investment strategies, better demand management, and improved public spending efficiency.

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Aug 25, 2021

Use of earth observation images and GIS techniques for groundwater exploration in hard rock terrain

It increased the demands on ground-water supplies that prolonged drought and improper maintenance of water resources. So it is necessary to evaluate ground-water resources in the hard rock terrain. In recent years, Remote-Sensing methods have been increasingly recognized as a means of obtaining crucial geoscientific data for both regional and site-specific investigations. This work aims to develop and apply integrated methods combining the information obtained by geo-hydrological field mapping and those obtained by analyzing multi-source remotely sensed data in a GIS environment for better understanding the Groundwater condition in hard rock terrain. In this study, digitally enhanced Landsat ETM+ data was used to extract information on geology, geomorphology. The Hill-Shading techniques are applied to SRTM DEM data to enhance terrain perspective views, and extract Geomorphological features and morphologically defined structures through the means of lineament analysis. A combination of Spectral information from Landsat ETM+ data plus spatial information from SRTM-DEM data is used to address the groundwater potential of alluvium, colluvium, and fractured crystalline rocks in the study area. The spatial distribution of groundwater potential zones shows regional patterns related to lithologies, lineaments, drainage systems, and landforms. High-yielding wells and springs are often related to large lineaments and corresponding structural features such as dykes. The results show that the combination of remote sensing, GIS, traditional fieldwork, and models provide a powerful tool for water resources assessment and management, and groundwater exploration planning.

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Apr 2, 2019

Determination of Fire Extent in Forest Zones Using Remote Sensing Data Case Study: Golestan Province of Iran

Fire is one of the most serious hazards, which causes many economic, social, ecological, and human damages every year in the world. Fire in forests and natural ecosystems destroys wood, regeneration, forest vegetation, as well as soil erosion and forest regeneration problems (due to the dryness of the weather and the weakness of the soil). Awareness of the extent of the zones that have been fired is important for forest management. On the other hand, the difficulty of fieldwork due to the high cost and inaccessible roads, etc. reveals the need for using remote sensing science to solve this problem. In this research, MODIS satellite images were used to detect and determine the fire extent of Golestan province forests in northern Iran. MID13q1 and MOD13q1 images were used to detect the normal conditions of the environment. The 15-year time series data were provided for the NDVI and NDMI indicators in 2000-2015. Then, the behavior of indicators in the fire zone was studied on the day after the fire. The burned zones by the fire were specified by determining the appropriate threshold and then, they were compared to long-term normals. In the NDMI and NDVI indicators, the mean of the numeric value threshold limit for determining the burnt pixels was respectively 1.865 and 0.743 of the reduction in their normal long-term period, which are selected as fire pixels. The results showed that the NDMI index could determine the extent of the burned zone with the accuracy of 95.15%.

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Aug 9, 2024

Re-contextualising human resource management in the 4IR: Lessons for Lesotho

Orientation: Indeed, the 4th industrial revolution (4IR) has redefined the world of work. A new set of skills needs to be defined and made available to organisations. Human resource management practices now operate in a complex, interconnected, unpredictable, and evolving environment. The question that one needs to answer is: how can HR align its functions to meet the demands of the fourth IR? It is prudent that human resource functions evolve quickly and adapt to changing demands. Research purpose: This paper seeks to unpack the changes that have been brought about by the 4IR and suggest ways in which HR professionals in Lesotho can align with this inevitable era of digitalisation. Motivation for the study: Due to the dynamics and transformations that have been brought about by the 4IR, this study was motivated by the need to understand the effects of the 4IR in small economies on the HR function and offer lessons to embrace change. Research approach: The research was qualitative in nature, and data was collected purposefully from journal articles, newspapers, and book chapters. Content analysis was used for the data analysis. Research findings: The effects of the 4IR through digitalisation disruptions have been felt across all corporate functions, and HR is no exception. It has had a massive influence on both the economy and the labour force and impacted employee roles in terms of health, mobility, working hours, personal life, and general administration. HR leaders play a critical role in ensuring that businesses are able to successfully adopt and deploy new technologies. Contributions: The research unpacks the effects of 4IR and gives practical lessons for HR professionals in Lesotho.

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