Interpreting What is Rural and Urban for Western U.S. Counties

The paper examines how rural and urban are interpreted and applied to counties in eleven states in the western United States. After reviewing various conceptual approaches, we turn to a three-part analysis of county commissioners' perceptions and census data to identify characteristics associated with urban-ness and rurality. The analysis involves comparing qualitative and quantitative survey and interview data, using a multiple regression analysis to correlate census variables with commissioners' perceptions of their home counties, and using cluster analysis techniques on census variables to identify patterns and unevenness in rurality and urbanness. Three characteristics mentioned by the widest range of commissioners and found to be statistically significant in the regression analysis were population concentration, total population, and the agricultural land base. Population concentration, in particular, was identified most frequently by interviewees as the single most important variable in characterizing an urban county and had the most meaningful contribution to predicting commissioners' perceptions of their home counties in the regression analysis. The cluster analysis identified five county types: largest urban centers, growing regional hubs, high growth rural, dispersed rural, and stable rural agriculture. These county types were widely distributed, reflecting the spatial unevenness of macroscale processes operating across eleven western states.     

坚持规划国土资源信息化顶层设计以信息化带动管理精细化

针对上海市规划和国土资源信息化建设中存在的问题,从信息系统规划建设、设计理念、系统开发等方面进行了深层次分析,提出了规划和国土资源信息化工作的目标与定位,强调要加强规划国土资源信息化的顶层设计,以信息化带动管理精细化,加快政府职能转变,建设服务型政府。在此基础上,从统一数据底板建设、管理业务架构梳理和再造、管理总体框架设计和实施等方面提出了推进上海规划和国土资源信息化建设的具体措施。     

Factors Inhibiting Local Government Engagement in Environmental Sustainability: case studies from rural Australia

The literature on local government management of the environment in Australia has been limited in that it has typically focused on the urban sphere. In contrast, this paper places rurality at the centre of its inquiry. It uses data from 15 case studies of rural local governments in Australia to identify the main factors that inhibit natural resource management by rural councils. These barriers mobilise around four key themes: capacity, commitment, co-ordination and community. While many of the issues raised in this study of non-urban shires have been described in previous research, the paper argues that the geographic location of the areas under investigation aggravates barriers to engaging sustainability initiatives. It is contended that rural local governments need to be resourced accordingly to ensure that natural resource management at the local government level in Australia is not compromised.     

基于CMPP协议的政务信息化网络系统的设计与实现

应用现代通信和网络技术,设计并实现了基于CMPP协议的政务信息化网络系统,主要通过手机短信、电子邮件、网站和电话四种方式收集民众信息,实现了互联网业务与移动增值业务相结合和信息处理的自动分流,使信息处理和回复更具有针对性,信息反馈实现了网站公开和回复到用户手机等多种方式,为政府决策提供第一手资料,为我国电子政务在便民服务方面填补了一项空白。     

面向电子政务的空间数据整合方法研究

随着电子政务建设的不断推进,政府部门对地理空间信息的需求越来越多。本文从政府部门的需求着手,通过对我国基础空间数据建设现状的描述和政府部门空间数据的需求分析,以Geowindows为整合的支撑平台,提出了整合与加工的目标、原则和解决方案,在相关部门的配合下,完成了面向政协、地震、广电、环保、统计等部门的空间数据整合示范,促进了空间数据成果在政府部门的应用和发展。     

The spaces of modernisation: Outcomes, indicators and the local government modernisation agenda

The modernisation of local government has attempted to reinvent central-local government relations by offering freedoms and flexibilities to facilitate the governance of local issues. At the same time, a shift to outcome focussed targets as a new form of governmental rationality allows central government to delimit these opportunities. Drawing on aspects of governmentality and actor-network theory, the paper explores the tensions between these modes of government. It argues that outcome focussed targets circumscribe the limits of local governance by offering a despatialised technology of government. Using a case study of Local Public Service Agreements, the paper highlights the problems 10 English rural local authorities have experienced in their attempts to construct and negotiate a series of local policy targets with central government. The paper shows how the spatial limitations of statistical governance conspire against the construction of targets which reflect local policy priorities. In conclusion we consider the extent to which these limitations are a deliberate act of control and consider the implications for agency within networks of governmentality.     

Global climate policy: will cities lead the way?

While the Conference of the Parties wrangle at an international scale with climate policy, a quiet set of policies and measures is being implemented at a local scale by municipalities across the globe. This study examines the motivation municipalities have for undertaking policies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, when the theory of free-riding would predict that local administrations should find it difficult to unilaterally reduce their emissions for the benefit of the global climate. Through interviews with officials and/or staff in 23 municipalities in the United States enacting climate policy, data are gathered that suggest local government abatement policies are primarily a top–down decision based on what officials or staff members believe to be “good business” or rational policy choices. They are primarily driven by the potential for realised or perceived cost savings and co-benefits rather than by public pressure. Economic data from some dozen municipal projects are analyzed, finding, while municipalities lack sophisticated accounting techniques, some justification for the often-disputed claim that at least initial reductions in emissions can be made at cost savings. In the United States, with the lack of national abatement policies, it is municipalities that are leading the way in beginning to implement mitigation strategies, even if only for initial reductions.     

Pushing the boundaries: the exclusion of disability rights groups from political influence in Victoria

An Australian federal government report ‘Acting against disability discrimination’ (1994) claims that disabled people ‘throughout Australia have organised themselves into a movement which is growing in strength, militancy, numbers and political sophistication, particularly over the last two decades’. The purpose is to determine whether the disabled people's movement has any strength or influence on government in Victoria. Participant observation, focused interviews, and document analysis showed that confrontational disability rights groups remain marginal to the decision making and policy making of governments in Victoria. This is because of their strategies of direct action, staging visible actions to attract media attention and subverting the ‘normal’ use of space, their non-hierarchical structure, lack of direct government funding and their small membership base that includes non-disabled people. Marginalisation may require disability groups to rethink their organisation and means of resistance if they are to gain greater influence in the formal political arena.     

浅谈防震减灾中的地方地震工作

地方地震工作如何实现防震减灾目标，从而适应社会现实的需要，并积极发挥自身的作用，是理论和实践上颇值探讨的重要问题。鉴于此，该文对地方地震工作发挥政府职能作用的重要性、基本内容和基本方式进行了探讨。     

电子政务与GIS

在对电子政务的基本概念进行系统分析之后 ,对我国电子政务建设的建设原则、建设目标和建设任务等进行了概括 ,并重点论述了电子政务与地理信息系统的关系。电子政务与GIS的关系突出体现在 :GIS是电子政务的地理空间定位平台 ;GIS赋予了电子政务以空间辅助决策的功能 ;GIS为电子政务提供清晰易读的可视化工具 ;电子政务的建设为GIS提供了新的发展机遇