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Smart city development has emerged as a favoured response to the 21st-century urbanisation challenges. A wide range of definitions surfaced over the last decade characterising the smart city, primarily pushed by the global elite corporations and influential academics. Simultaneously, a series of urban development expressions, such as digital city, knowledge city, eco-city is used interchangeably with the smart city, significantly mystifying the reading of the concept. This paper, first argue that smart city interpretation needs and requires the input and contribution of the local stakeholders. The aim of this research is to provide an evidence-based framework to capture the perception of local urban actors in India vis-à-vis their interpretation of smart cities given the existing urban conditions and the proposed developments under the 100 Smart Cities Mission. This research also examines the underlying linkage between the smart city and its conceptual relatives and highlights the ones witha significant convergence with the emerging urban agenda in India's Smart Cities Mission. The analysis presented in this paper show that to emerge as a holistic concept, smart cities definition models should engage with the sustainability and community issues, beyond the use of digital technology. The research reveals that the Indianurban stakeholders strongly associate the smart city concept with sustainable city and eco-city, much more than the technology-loaded phrases such as ubiquitous city and digital city. The first-of-its-kind inclusive approach developed in this paper to define smart city takes on the monopolies of top-down smart city definitions andsupport the democratisation of the rapidly proliferating concept.

There is wide agreement among the scientific community that local government's have a central role to play in fostering smart cities which focusses on improving quality of life by integrating technology with urban operations. But, urban governance in rapidly urbanising countries of global south is often poorly organised to deal with emerging challenges and sustaining local growth, seriously hindering their aspirations to become smart cities. Although smart city case studies are abundant in literature, their governance framework and structural variations across regions are not emphasised. Furthermore, efforts to import governance models from developed world cities are facing lack of unique context sensitivities, which stand against their transformation as smart cities. This paper contributes to the debate on urban governance of smart cities by providing their distinct theoretical conceptualisations and linking them with case studies. It analyses the urban governance dynamics in Indian cities which has started implementing a massive 100 smart cities development programme. From the past experiences of Indian cities in reforming urban administration to its new model of special purpose vehicle led project execution; this research critically assesses the ability of Indian cities to change its archaic bureaucratic complex traditional government in to a more accountable collaborative governance. The outcomes from this study highlights the need for aspiring smart cities in emerging economies to address deep-seated structural issues of municipal government's and engage in a process of governance transformation rather than adopting temporary solutions.

Urban development initiatives in India are largely shaped by a 'patchwork of programmers' launched periodically by the Government of India. Recently, the Indian government has launched multiple urban transformation programmes aiming at smart city development, urban renewal, and heritage development. But, India's urban policy interventions lacks effective mechanisms for measuring the impact of such programmes over time. Indicator systems can provide insight into local urban challenges and issues and offer a basis for measuring urban progress as a result of public investments. Although there are multiple global indicator facilities available for adoption, considerable challenges remain in selecting an appropriate set of indicators for local conditions. With Indian urbanisation intensifying and an accompanying proliferation of urban development programmes, there is an increasing need for a set of indicators suited to local context. A local approach can objectively measure the existing performance of Indian cities vis-a-vis quality of life and sustainability, and can evaluate the outcome and benefits of new local urban development programmes as they are implemented. To address this emerging need, this research aims to provide a bridge between local urban performance and the capacity to meet local and global standards. By the application of factor analysis (Principal Component Analysis) on 59 indicators chosen from various urban sectors, this study attempts to derive the most significant factors to measure the performance of 98 Indian cities and assess their potential to become sustainable smart cities. The study enhances the selection and development of policies by city makers. It also establishes an approach to develop urban typologies for different Indian cities. Such a categorisation makes the bewildering range of Indian cities and their challenges easier to comprehend and address.

In 2015 the Government of India announced an ambitious mission to develop 100 smart cities throughout the rapidly urbanising country. As part of this mission, the Government has initiated ICT based citizen engagement through a dedicated website - MyGov.in. The disparity in digital infrastructure between different socio-economic demographics is a challenge for cities in emerging economies wishing to implement smart city policies. Our research explores the relationship between active civic engagement and the availability of basic digital infrastructure and socio-economic standards in Indian cities. This study provides insights on factors that lead to the success or failure of cities' online citizen engagement platforms. Such insights offer important lessons for building future smart and connected cities as well as promoting healthy urban relationships and welfare, in the emerging economies of the world.

This paper examined the impact of providing affordable rental housing through inner-city urban renewal projects in Australia. Providing affordable rental housing for lower-income households remains a challenge for planners, builders, policymakers and residents alike. Government intervention for inclusionary zoning in Australia has enhanced affordable housing supply but has also generated negative impacts such as NIMBY-ism, decreasing house price and urban sprawl. This study conducted in-depth interviews with housing and planning experts in affordable housing projects in Australia and evaluated the barriers and opportunities of providing affordable rental housing as stand-alone projects, or as part of urban renewal projects. This study found several existing challenges such as limited longevity of related policies and limited financing sources for renewal projects. The findings inform policymakers that the existing housing affordability issue can be tackled by adopting more innovative approaches such as negative gearing.

LAY SUMMARY The efficacy of current hemostatic technologies is limited by several factors. Outward blood flow washes hemostatic drugs away from the wound, and hemostatic drugs often require focus, training, and time to use correctly, are highly specific to one type of injury, or pose severe safety risks. CounterFlow is a novel product that could potentially save military and civilian lives by stopping heavy bleeding from a variety of organs and other bodily locations that current technology cannot easily treat. Upon contact with blood, CounterFlow releases bursts of gas to safely self-propel bio-degradable clot-forming and clot-stabilizing drugs against blood flow, delivering them to the source of bleeding. This unique mechanism allows CounterFlow to be applied quickly to a wide assortment of wounds and to act effectively with little management after application. CounterFlow was tested in multiple animal models representing common and deadly bleeding scenarios, including internal bleeding, care under fire without compression, and surgical bleeding, and it was found to outperform current care options by stopping bleeds faster and increasing survival times. CounterFlow is also safe to use and biocompatible. This narrative review summarizes studies testing the effectiveness and safety of CounterFlow, discusses useful applications, and describes future plans for the product.

Since Pakistan is vulnerable to changing climatic conditions, the country needs emergency measures at every level to mitigate their effect. Many studies have addressed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at the macro or institutional level, but its effect at the micro-level is largely ignored in the contemporary literature. The present study aims at filling this gap by highlighting the role of micro-level CSR on Environmental Performance (ENP) and how it is influenced by employees' pro-environmental (PEB) behavior and gender. This study has been carried out in the context of deteriorating environmental conditions, scarce CSR activities and a male dominant society. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire targeting the manufacturing and the service sectors of Pakistan and analyzed through the structural equation modeling technique, using AMOS and SPSS software. The results of this study confirm that micro-level CSR initiatives directly (β = 0.39⁎⁎) and indirectly (β = 0.031⁎⁎) influence the environmental performance of an organization by means of employees' PEB. A conditional indirect gender effect on this interaction was also observed, with women (β =0.17⁎⁎) exerting a stronger effect than men (β = 0.031⁎⁎). These findings may be helpful for policymakers involved in environmental management: It is possible to reduce the environmental footprint of Pakistan's organizations by encouraging employee's PEB and particularly by actively involving women which are systematically set apart from decision making in Pakistan.

The literature on sustainable tourism is scant, particularly in the least developed countries. Very few studies touch upon the concept and no holistic theoretical or conceptual frameworks around the idea of sustainable tourism have been formulated. This study aims at exploring the role of tour operators in developing sustainable tourism in Pakistan and how the tour operators (TOs) conceive their role in this regard. TOs were reached through phone calls, emails, and virtual sources as face-to-face interviews were not possible due to COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on travel by the government. In-depth interviews were conducted to gather data. Results suggest that the TOs although realize the importance of social, environmental, and economic dimensions of tourism on the communities but have no management systems in place to cater accordingly. There are no incentives in place by the government facilitate TOs to design and implement such systems. The TOs do not select a destination based on Global Sustainable Tourism Council criterion, but rather the selection of destination is mostly demand-based and profit-oriented. The study suggests that corporate profit motive is the sole criterion for decision making and is one of the major causes impeding sustainable tourism in Pakistan. The role of TOs in developing sustainable tourism is vague as the TOs do not have any systems in place to implement sustainable models. The study recommends that efforts need to be put in place to incentivize sustainable tourism in Pakistan and proper laws should be set forth by the authorities to comply by the TOs. The role of TOs is important and understood, however, there is a need to put proper systems in place.

Irrigation occupies a central position in China?s crop production. However, due to low per capita water resources, much worse, unevenly distributed over regions and time and the rapid increase of water diversions to non-irrigation sectors, irrigation water shortages have become a very serious problem. Without the adoption of effective measures this problem may even threaten China?s food security. Currently, irrigation efficiency is very low in general, irrigation water prices cannot fully recover water supply costs, and irrigation facilities are aging due to the lack of funding for O&M (operation & maintenance). Since water prices are regulated by the government, and not determined by the market, water prices did not work effectively in water allocation. The adoption of more economic incentive measures, such as increasing water prices, has become the main strategy of the Chinese government. Since 1 January 2004, China has carried out a new water pricing regulation. The main objectives of this regulation are that water price should be increased to fully recover water supply cost and that water should be treated as a market good. In non-irrigation sectors, the consensus is that water price could be charged to fully recover water supply cost. However, there is still controversy over the charge of irrigation water pricing. Indeed, increasing water price to fully recover supply cost may seriously affect grain production, and farmers? income. Past studies in China on these issues mainly focused on the theoretical aspects of the problem, analyzing whether irrigation water price should be increased or not. Little studies have quantified the potential impact of the reforms in China. The following questions need to be elaborated: Are irrigation water pricing reforms effective?; What are the attitudes of the farmers towards the reforms?; How do farmers respond to water pricing reforms?; What comprehensive methods should be adopted to achieve the goals of the reforms? ; This project is based on the analysis of three case studies (Wudu, Jinghuiqu, and Shijin irrigation districts). Jinghuiqu is located in an arid region, Shijin is located in a semi-arid region and Wudu is located in the more humid Southwest. All the issues mentioned above, have been studied using econometric methods on the basis of the data gathered at the household, field canal, pump, and village level. The study reveals that the farmers? ability to pay for irrigation water is still low and that the current water prices reflect the farmers? willingness to pay, which implies that it is in fact very difficult to increase water prices further, let alone fully recover water supply cost. Farmers do not really participate in the irrigation management process, even at the field canal level, which limits the farmers? willingness to pay. In areas confronted with severe water shortages, such as in the Jinghuiqu and Shijin irrigation districts, it is estimated that the volume of water use significantly affects wheat and maize yields, and the reduction of field water use will lead to the decline of grain production. In such cases, although increasing irrigation water price will encourage farmers to reduce water use, it may also force them to decrease their grain production. These measures affect the farmers? revenues, which are largely dependent on crop production, thus increasing social inequities. Other policies need to protect weaker groups, such as poor farmers and farmers whose income mainly depends on crops. For instance, water property has still not been initialized and both irrigation bureaus and farmers lack incentives to adopt water-saving technologies. Initiating water property, expanding low-cost water-saving technologies, reforming irrigation management and fostering a water market are all important measures to achieve the policy goals of water-saving. At this point, it is necessary to emphasize that surface water price reforms may deeply affect groundwater resources use, especially in the conjunctive irrigation areas. Without the enhancement of groundwater resources management, saving surface water may lead to more overexploitation of groundwater resources, such was the case in the Jinghuiqu and Shijin irrigation districts. ; All in all, irrigation water price reforms represent a revolution when compared with traditional irrigation water resource management in China. Comprehensive and integrated policies should be carried out. China being such a large country, reforms cannot be uniform in all areas. Different areas, with different precipitation levels, should adopt different measures. In most parts of South China, volumetric water pricing is not appropriate, since this method requires large infrastructure investments. Collecting water fees on the basis of the farmers? irrigated area is an alternative policy, although it requires involving farmers in the irrigation management process. Even in the northern regions, the standards of irrigation infrastructure should not be overemphasized and more attention should be paid to the cost-benefits analysis of irrigation investments.

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173,429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, coping and trust in government efforts to slow the spread of the virus. Starting in March 2020, COVIDiSTRESS leveraged the convenience of unpaid online recruitment to generate public data. The objective of the present analysis is to understand relationships between psychological responses in the early months of global coronavirus resreictions, and help understand how different government measures succeed or fail in changing public behaviour. There were variations between and within countries. Although Western Europeans registered as more concerned over COVID-19, more stressed, and having slightly more trust in the governments' efforts, there was no clear geographical pattern in compliance with behavioural measures. Detailed plots illustrating between-countries differences are provided.Using both traditional and Bayesian analyses, we found that individuals who worried about getting sick worked harder to protect themselves and others. However, concern about the coronavirus itself did not account for all of the variance in experienced stress during the early months of coronavirus restrictions. More alarmingly, such stress was associated with less compliance. Further, those most concerned over the coronavirus trusted in government measures primarily where policies were strict. While concern over a disease is a source of mental distress, other factors including strictness of protective measures, social support, and personal lockdown conditions must also be taken into consideration to fully appreciate the psychological impact of COVID-19 and to understand why some people fail to follow behavioral guidelines intended to protect themselves and others from infection.

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, coping and trust in government efforts to slow the spread of the virus. Starting in March 2020, COVIDiSTRESS leveraged the convenience of unpaid online recruitment to generate public data. The objective of the present analysis is to understand relationships between psychological responses in the early months of global coronavirus restrictions and help understand how different government measures succeed or fail in changing public behaviour. There were variations between and within countries. Although Western Europeans registered as more concerned over COVID-19, more stressed, and having slightly more trust in the governments' efforts, there was no clear geographical pattern in compliance with behavioural measures. Detailed plots illustrating between-countries differences are provided. Using both traditional and Bayesian analyses, we found that individuals who worried about getting sick worked harder to protect themselves and others. However, concern about the coronavirus itself did not account for all of the variances in experienced stress during the early months of COVID-19 restrictions. More alarmingly, such stress was associated with less compliance. Further, those most concerned over the coronavirus trusted in government measures primarily where policies were strict. While concern over a disease is a source of mental distress, other factors including strictness of protective measures, social support and personal lockdown conditions must also be taken into consideration to fully appreciate the psychological impact of COVID-19 and to understand why some people fail to follow behavioural guidelines intended to protect themselves and others from infection. The Stage 1 manuscript associated with this submission received in-principle acceptance (IPA) on 18 May 2020. Following IPA, the accepted Stage 1 version of the manuscript was preregistered on the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/g2t3b. This preregistration was performed prior to data analysis.

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, coping and trust in government efforts to slow the spread of the virus. Starting in March 2020, COVIDiSTRESS leveraged the convenience of unpaid online recruitment to generate public data. The objective of the present analysis is to understand relationships between psychological responses in the early months of global coronavirus restrictions and help understand how different government measures succeed or fail in changing public behaviour. There were variations between and within countries. Although Western Europeans registered as more concerned over COVID-19, more stressed, and having slightly more trust in the governments' efforts, there was no clear geographical pattern in compliance with behavioural measures. Detailed plots illustrating between-countries differences are provided. Using both traditional and Bayesian analyses, we found that individuals who worried about getting sick worked harder to protect themselves and others. However, concern about the coronavirus itself did not account for all of the variances in experienced stress during the early months of COVID-19 restrictions. More alarmingly, such stress was associated with less compliance. Further, those most concerned over the coronavirus trusted in government measures primarily where policies were strict. While concern over a disease is a source of mental distress, other factors including strictness of protective measures, social support and personal lockdown conditions must also be taken into consideration to fully appreciate the psychological impact of COVID-19 and to understand why some people fail to follow behavioural guidelines intended to protect themselves and others from infection. The Stage 1 manuscript associated with this submission received in-principle acceptance (IPA) on 18 May 2020. Following IPA, the accepted Stage 1 version of the manuscript was preregistered on the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/g2t3b. This preregistration was performed prior to data analysis.