International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning

The rapid transformation of the grocery business in cities from small to larger units during the last decades has resulted in grocery store nets with fewer nodes. Cost reductions as well as cost increases associated with the structural change are present, with a poorly understood net effect. Earlier research indicates that retail trade is subject to an increasing-returns illusion when increasing consumer participation in performing the service reduces the amount of service actually performed by the firm. This is still to a large extent an unexplored issue of utmost policy relevance. In this paper a total cost model will be presented that focus on this research question. Its components, grocery prices in retailing and consumers transport cost functions are estimated from empirical data and derived from a specific spatial structure respectively. Our conclusion is that the increasing returns are not an illusion but due to external costs somewhat exaggerated. The costs associated with the transport and time use by consumers are more than well compensated by the scale economies related to larger stores. When the transport network is severely congested, however, we have a situation closer to the scenario with an increasing returns illusion. But we can clearly state that the structural change in grocery retailing is welfare enhancing when the capacity utilisation in the transportation system is balanced. From a policy perspective the results of this study clearly suggests that issues regarding local service should be an integral part of strategic urban transport planning. With infrastructure and transportation systems that enable easy and affordable access with cars in the city, a significant number of people will find it optimal to use large stores for grocery shopping. Restrictive policies at the more detailed level, currently applied in many countries, will clearly be ineffective since they are counteracted by forces released by more strategic choices.

This paper looks at the role and importance of regional airports in mountain areas. The question of accessibility is examined at different scales, from regional airports serving mountain areas to high-altitude aerodromes (altiports) and airstrips (altisurfaces) in mountain resorts. The ways in which air transport is integrated into intermodal transport systems serving tourist areas, most notably mountain resorts, are also investigated. Given the highly seasonal and specific nature of their use, many airports serving mountain areas are faced with problems of over-sizing or seasonal congestion. Issues such as the socio-economic and environmental integration of regional airports are also extremely important for mountain areas. Altiports and altisurfaces can contribute substantially to the tourism development of mountain regions by improving accessibility for visitors and through leisure aviation. Consequently, regional airports have a substantial impact on an area's image, whether they are viewed positively, as an aid to development, or negatively, as harmful to the environment. The present analysis was based on several case studies that highlight different aspects of regional air transport in mountain areas. The specificities of regional airport development in the Alps, and particularly in France, are illustrated by the story of Air Alpes. Attention is also focused on the links between the United Kingdom and Chambéry and Grenoble airports, which are dominated by low-cost airlines. Looking at the larger picture, examples of mountain-periphery and extra-mountain airports in France, Switzerland and Nepal are examined in order to investigate the formation of networks, the importance of regional airports and their contribution to regional development.

Application of genetic algorithms to the optimization of certain aspects of low enthalpy geothermal district heating schemes is presented. In particular, minimization of the cost due to pumping and amortization of the construction of the pipe network inside the geothermal field is investigated. After an outline of the optimization code, its performance is evaluated, through application examples to geothermal fields with uniform and non-uniform water temperature distribution. Moreover, a procedure to decide the number of the new wells, that should be drilled, is discussed. It has been concluded that use of the proposed technique may result in substantial cost reduction, thus promoting the direct use of geothermal energy.

Buildings account for around 30% of the developed countries greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Improving energy efficiency of buildings is one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways of reducing GHG emissions. This paper outlines the results of research carried out in Australia in 2009. The broad aims of the research are to identify policy directions to aid in the uptake of sustainability practices that will help improve building performance and reduce GHG emissions. Part of the research entailed surveying building practitioners involved in residential property development to find out their experiences with designing and constructing homes and what they perceive to be the drivers and barriers to the uptake of sustainable building practices. Respondents have seen an increase in demand for energy-efficient 'green' homes, due to an increase in awareness of climate change and also the reduced utility costs associated with these homes. The most common, client-preferred, and successful features incorporated into the design and retrofitting of homes were passive solar design, having gas connected, solar water heating and rainwater tanks. The high sunshine hours in Australia together with the availability of Government rebates and subsidies make these features financially viable. The average cost premium to build a 'green' home was identified as 14.2% compared to the cost of building a conventional home without energy-efficient features. The main barriers that prevent the incorporation of sustainable features into residential developments were identified as cost and lack of developer awareness. Despite this, two-thirds of the respondents felt that consumers would be willing to pay up to a 10% premium for an environmentally friendly home. Unfortunately, this falls below the 14.2% premium identified.

The complexity of natural resource management (NRM), which is socially an evolving 'discipline of disciplines', creates challenges for society. With the continual degradation of the natural resource base it can be hypothesised that the past and present approaches to NRM in Australia have failed. NRM is recognised in the 21st century as having assumed importance as a development strategy because of the claims that it can contribute towards sustainable livelihoods; thus NRM has two facets: the natural resource base and the institutional arrangements required to maintain this base. Australia is presently going through a transformation with the evolution of a regional NRM systems approach. This paper reports a hypothesised model of a sustainable regional NRM system for Australia.

ABSTRACT Received: 8 July 2021 Accepted: 10 September 2021 Sustainable development goals have incorporated all the aspects of our society. The proper achievement of these goals can be the redemption for the third world countries in terms of politics, society and economy. Goal 16 is introduced in order to promote peace and ensure an inclusive society. The targets and indicators of this goal more or less focus on ensuring effective, accountable and transparent institutes which conceal flexible, inclusive, participatory and representative decision making. On the other hand, the committee system of our local government has been designed exactly to pursue the same objectives as goal no 16. This study was conducted on three Union Parishads (Union Councils) of Rajshahi district and interviewed all the presiding members of Standing Committees. The study also considered the awareness of local residents in the question of activation and effectiveness of the standing committees. It used mostly qualitative data and the direct opinions of the respondents. A few quantitative data have been included as well. The study found our local representatives totally clueless about their committees and Union Parishads totally devoid of the committee practice. This study suspects that our local bodies will hardly be able to contribute anything at all to promoting peace, justice and strong institution.

This article is motivated by the large number of irresponsible use of plastic waste in Ambon city, Maluku Province. This research is a normative legal research. The results obtained in this paper are Waste Management of plastic packaging beverage products carried out by Ambon city producers in accordance with Law Number 18 of 2008 concerning Waste. Management to reclaim packaging that has been consumed by consumers so that they can be recycled systematically, thoroughly and in a sustainable manner. and produce goods using materials that are environmentally friendly and reusable. Apart from doing this, producers are also responsible for waste management in collaboration with the Ambon City Government as stated in Article 44 paragraph (1) of Ambon City Regulation Number 11 of 2015 which includes the provision / construction of Temporary Shelters (TPS) or TPS 3R. (Reduce Reuse). , Recycling), Final Disposal Site (TPA) or Integrated Waste Processing Site (TPST), as well as supporting facilities and infrastructure, in this case providing a vehicle for transporting waste from TPS or TPS 3R to TPA or TPST, TPA or TPST management and / or management other processed products. This cooperation takes the form of sorting, collecting, transporting, processing, and / or final processing of waste.

From March 2020 to early June 2020, Kosovo introduced various travel restriction measures for foreign nationals, including entry bans, closure of land and air border crossings, two-week quarantine, and self-isolation. From March to May, the country was almost completely blocked, where the activities of the tourism industry were strictly prohibited while businesses encountered great difficulties to operate and provide services, the number of jobseekers in the country increased significantly, precisely because of the cessation of activities, because this sector is considered to be one of the sectors that contributes the most to employment in our country, despite the fact that some of these businesses are family businesses. A significant number of employees in these sectors in our country may lose their jobs, as a result of the situation created, and this will further deepen the tourism industry, mainly due to the decline in the volume of remittances and tourism diaspora in Kosovo. While restrictive measures may have had a positive impact on curbing the spread of the virus, and preventing the escalation of the health crisis, the effect and consequences of closing the economy for months is severe for the tourism industry.

The purpose of this research is to investigate brand association of Ciletuh – Palabuhanratu UNESCO Global Geopark towards the COVID-19 pandemic and sustainable tourism. This research employs a qualitative research method with a case study and descriptive statistics model. The data used in this study are primary and secondary ones in which the techniques of data collecting is by observation, purposive random sampling with Likert scale, as well as literature studies. The results of this study show that Ciletuh-Palabuhanratu Geopark is not only a strategic place for tourism activities in the COVID-19 pandemic since it has characteristics to comply health protocols but also able to meet the tourism recovery during the pandemic. The tourism activities provided by Ciletuh-Palabuhanratu Geopark sites meet the concept of quality adventure tourism and in line with sustainable tourism with concerns on balancing the environmental conservation, local economic empowerment, as well as local social and culture preservation. The brand association of Ciletuh-Palabuhanratu Geopark is shown by its tourism product scope and quality which are associated to sustainable tourism, moreover the use occasion is line with the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The attributes of UNESCO Global Geopark also create the values of tourism activities during and after COVID-19 pandemic which meet the points of sustainable tourism activities and recoveries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on all aspects of the company's life cycle. Some companies are even unable to maintain optimal performance like before during the pandemic. Corporate social responsibility activities that are considered to provide good faith to the good name of the company that contribute to increasing stock returns. However, corporate social responsibility activities are maximized because the costs are chosen for activities around the environment carried out by large-scale companies on the Compass Index 100. This study aims to determine the effect of corporate social responsibility and company size on stock returns through Return on Equity in companies listed on Kompas 100 Index after the COVID-19 Pandemic. The population in this study covers all companies that are members of the Kompas 100 Index and are registered with Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). The sample method used is purposive sampling. The data analysis technique used is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. The results showed that corporate social responsibility and company size affect Return on Equity and stock returns, and Return on Equity affects stock returns. The demand for shares of companies listed on the Kompas 100 Index is classified as the most consistent because it takes into account the company's sustainability in the future by allocating corporate social responsibility costs to build the company's good name. Corporate social responsibility activities are the example of the company's concern for the surrounding environment which aims to be able to increase the company's Return on Equity. In line with the higher level of Return on Equity, the size of the company as measured by total assets has also increased.

Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality (TTH) sectors had been believed to continue experiencing constant growth before the unexpected COVID-19 outbreak. Although the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle-East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak had occurred before, COVID-19 is causing a vast number of fatalities and raised social and economic issues in many countries. TTH sectors were under heavy pressure compared to other industries during COVID-19. This article aims to systematically review the critical role of SSTs to be adopted in the TTH companies during and after COVID-19. How business transformation is possible in the TTH companies will also be discussed. For that purpose, this study carried out a meta-analysis from previous studies. The results revealed TTH companies must re-shape business strategy by adopting and adjusting service delivery using Self-Service Technologies (SSTs) to stay competitive and survive tough times. TTH ecosystem needs to employ Augmented reality, Virtual reality, Blockchain, Robot, and Autonomous Service which have become a reality today and become a necessity for many industries in the future. The originality or novelty of this research is that this research contributes to the body of knowledge by elaborating on how TTH sectors will adopt SSTs.

The paper aims to measure the ability of housing design in Palestine to respond to any emerging functions and needs and the ability to adapt to new and possible sudden lifestyle changes. Four different interior house types were analyzed, two refer to the traditional approach of the closed plan, and another two types refer to the modern approaches of the open plan in terms of adaptation to new needs. These needs are adaptability to work from home, flexibility to change, separate or merge functions, and the adaptability to respond to health issues like quarantine. The study adopts the method of architectural analysis and questionnaire to measure people's opinions about all types in terms of sudden functions. The study takes the COVID-19 pandemic conditions as a case study. The main finding of the study is establishing a relationship between style of housing spatial design and the ability for adapting sudden changes in lifestyle. It shows that the traditional designs adapt to most changing lifestyles successfully, the independent guest room was converted into an office or guaranteed room. Moreover, the modern open plan house design with a T shape of the day wing is the best choice for adapting to the post-COVID-19.

The study aims to identify the role of local government and its transformation in response to the COVID-19. It also shows how local governments extended the scope of accountability and transparency to strengthen democracy. The study followed the social survey method and collected data online through Google Docs form. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics to generate expected results and test the hypothesis by the Spearman correlation coefficient. The study found local governments were positive during COVID-19 to provide services and offered more public engagement in policy formulation, thus more democratic. The health sector has shown the highest priority, with food and environmental services. Inefficient management capacity of leaders and apathy in public engagement hamper resource mobilization at the local level. During COVID-19, ICT intervention and innovation for digital transformation in local governance increased accountability and transparency through easy and effective participation of mass people to strengthen local democracy to respond effectively against COVID-19.

To realize the sustainable development of the corn industry, the key lies in improving the total factor productivity (TFP) of corn under the constraint of carbon emissions. Based on the panel data of 19 main corn producing areas in China, this paper creates a corn TFP measurement model, applies the model to measure the corn TFPs in each main producing area from 2008 to 2018, and analyzes the features and causes of the variation in corn TFP in China with constraint of carbon emissions. The results show that: After 2015, the corn TFP in China was on the rise with constraint of carbon emissions, and the corn production was moving towards low-carbon mode, but exhibited huge regional difference; The policies on corn structure adjustment in the Sickle Band areas have effectively promoted the low-carbon production of corn in these areas, and improved the corn TFP; The growth of corn TFP in China is mainly bottlenecked by the slow technical progress. Finally, several policy suggestions were put forward to promote the low-carbon production and TFP of corn and other crops.

There have been concerns globally as to whether taking COVID-19 vaccination is harmful or not. In this study, we conducted an online survey to measure the knowledge and attitude of people, first about COVID-19, and second about COVID-19 vaccination—various analyses such as descriptive statistics, logistic regression, and support vector regression with k-fold cross-validation. The support vector machine and tuned support vector machine suggest a better fit based on cross-validation error. The results show that immigration requirements significantly explain why an individual would accept the COVID-19 vaccine. This study suggests that people in authority should look into people's concerns regarding taking the COVID-19 vaccine and address them accordingly. The study aims to draw the attention of the people to the concern that surrounds taking COVID-19 vaccination and explored various statistical techniques to draw inference.

The policy article aims to formulate a re-adaptation to the impact of COVID-19 that strengthens the social resilience of villages in a sustainable manner based on empirical findings. This article uses a sequential mixed model research design approach analysis with focus group discussion, and it is strengthened by data collected from 105 respondents chosen through random sampling techniques, online in-depth interviews, and group interviews in the villages where the article was conducted. The result showed that the village government was able to build a dialogue with villagers to find common understanding and build collective action to overcome the impact of COVID-19. Another finding is that the village government can realize real action in synergizing social protection policies from the government with the development of social security in rural communities. It was concluded that the experience of overcoming the impact of COVID-19 should be used as an innovation in the development mechanism of village governments in Indonesia. The innovation described in this article is known as re-adaptation. Disaster adaptation is designed and included in the village government's development planning mechanism document. The article has limitations because it does not examine existing regulations that could be used to expand innovative practices.

The research objectives were to analyze the socio-economic conditions of farmers while identifying the suitability level of the land and develop a mapping of high potential for medicinal plants (biopharmaca). The method used was purposive sampling carried out by conducting direct surveys, followed by sampling the soil at the research sites, and analyzing the socio-economic level of farmers in Tinombo District. The maps of slope class, soil, and land use were overlaid by using the ArcGIS 10.0 application. The observation revealed that in general, the socio-economic value of the farming community on the cultivation of medicinal plants was quite good. Farmers put a high level of interest, cultivation techniques, and land suitability, with an average of 2.22, 2.72, and 2.1, respectively. However, the level of knowledge on seedling and marketing parameters found low, with an average of 1.5 and 1.0, respectively. The analysis of soil samples seemed to determine the land suitability. The pH parameter H2O has a value ranging from 5.81 to 7.09, C-organic was 1.14 - 6.37%, total N-value was 0.28 to 0.49%, P- availability was 3.29 - 130.55 ppm, and cation exchange capacity was 0.08 - 1.46 cmol+/kg. In the parameters of the exchangeable bases of the land, including K about 0.07 - 1.46 cmol+/ kg, Ca about 0.13 - 8.88 cmol+/ kg, Mg about 0.18 - 8.66 cmol+/ kg, and Na about 0.10 - 0.18 cmol+/ kg. Then, the soil base saturation parameter valued of 1.34 - 56.63%. The characteristics of the cultivated land for medicinal plants, both chemical and physical, have been identified in order to create agricultural land with suitable characteristics of the cultivated plants.

COVID-19 pandemic, which is still lasting from the end of 2019 until the 1st quarter of 2022, has influenced and altered the tourism paradigms before and after pandemic. The changes are not only adapting health protocols to minimize the pandemic outbreaks but also the tourism reborn from mass tourism into sustainable tourism. This research is investigating the geotourism activities in Cibenda village and its potencies of sustainable tourism found in geosites of the village which are included as geoarea of Ciletuh – Palabuhanratu UNESCO Global Geopark. Qualitative descriptive method with a case study was used in this research. The data used are primary and secondary ones which were taken by observation, open interview with prominent people of Cibenda, and literature studies. This research’s results show that Cibenda village has potential tourism attractions with their geodiversity, biodiversity and cultural diversity providing something to see, something to do and something to learn. Furthermore, the geotourism activities in Cibenda are in accordance with the concept of quality adventure tourism and in line with sustainable tourism principles i.e. balancing the environmental conservation, local economic empowerment, as well as social and culture preservation which comply with the health protocols of COVID-19 and the necessities of tourism activities after pandemic.