State of Australian cities 2014-2015: progress in Australian regions

Provides insight into the vital role that Australian cities play in the growth of the countries economy and tracks the overall progress made in Australia\u27s major centres. Summary Since 2010, the State of Australian Cities reports have examined the progress being made in our major cities. These reports have provided insight into the vital role that Australian cities play in the growth of our economy and have tracked the overall progress made in Australia\u27s major centres. The State of Australian Cities 2014–2015 once again looks at the drivers behind some of the public policy issues facing the country today and into the future. Australia is a highly urbanised country. The populations of Australia\u27s major cities are at record levels, as is the number of people employed. It is in our cities that the overwhelming majority of jobs are located and where the most new jobs are being created. The economic output of our major cities has grown and their national importance remains extremely high. However, alongside that growth there is more demand on transport systems in Australia than ever before. This report examines population growth, economic growth and the increased traffic flows through our ports and airports and on our roads and rail lines. Issues of space and the potential conflicts of the usability of cities with the utility and long term capacity of freight hubs, ports and airports and the movement of goods and people in cities is a challenge for policy makers. This report provides the evidence base for policy makers at all levels of government to consider those challenges now and into the future

A study of Village Budget (APBDes) Utilization for Village Infrastructure Development at Wates

The application of village budget (APBDes) on rural infrastructure development in Wates, including the planning based on social need has two models: community discussion and BPD (village representative) which is directly involved in APBDes planning. The realization of APBDes in rural infrastructure development has three models: first, infrastructures developed by rural district, second, infrastructures developed in RT (neighborhood association-the lowest administrative unit) area under village chief coordination and third, tertiary irrigation infrastructure by P3A (association of farmers using water). Since 2007-2008, the budget allocation is effectively used more or less 16% from the DAD (Village Allocation Budget) for infrastructure development. The DAD application shows that the improvement is lower compared to the higher DAD. Before and after the DAD enactment, infrastructure development has shown the same raising. Therefore, the raising of DAD in APBDes does not directly influence the raising of rural infrastructure development because of its little proportion and for it serves as a stimulus to the community self-supporting. The development of rural infrastructure in Wates is influenced by rural improvement program which is funded by central government, province government and district government, APBDes and community self-supporting fund. APBDes gives 5% support from the total needed for rural infrastructure development in Wates

Ensuring Rural Infrastructure in India: Role of Rural Infrastructure Development fund

Inclusive economic growth is the most talked about issue in India. This is due to the fact that the impacts of the recent spectacular growth have not been able to percolate down to various segments of population, most importantly to the rural population. Rural infrastructure in India have still remained far from satisfactory and amongst others, lack of funds is one critical reason for this. In order to ensure smooth flow of funds for the development of infrastructure in rural India, rural infrastructure development fund (RIDF) was introduced in the budget of 1995-’96. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governs this fund through NABARD with corpus from the commercial banks. This paper is an attempt to critically examine some of the issues that arise in the context of utilization of the fund by different states of India. The study finds that many projects remain incomplete even after receiving funds under RIDF and certain measures are necessary to ensure proper utilization of funds as well as to reduce intra rural disparity in India.Key Words: Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, Corpus, RIDF Tranche

Infrastructure for sustainable development: the role of national development banks

This repository item contains a policy brief from the Boston University Global Economic Governance Initiative. The Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) is a research program of the Center for Finance, Law & Policy, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, and the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. It was founded in 2008 to advance policy-relevant knowledge about governance for financial stability, human development, and the environment.Development banks are increasingly becoming relied upon to help finance sustainable infrastructure in the 21st century. Much of the emphasis has been on the role of the existing multi-lateral development banks (MDBs), but lesser attention has been paid to the role of national development banks (NDBs). To help fill this gap, Boston University’s Global Economic Governance initiative (GEGI) and the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development program convened a Task Force on Development Banks and Sustainable Development to examine the extent to which development banks are becoming catalysts for achieving a climate friendly and more socially inclusive world economy

Autonomous rendezvous and capture development infrastructure

In the development of the technology for autonomous rendezvous and docking, key infrastructure capabilities must be used for effective and economical development. This involves facility capabilities, both equipment and personnel, to devise, develop, qualify, and integrate ARD elements and subsystems into flight programs. One effective way of reducing technical risks in developing ARD technology is the use of the ultimate test facility, using a Shuttle-based reusable free-flying testbed to perform a Technology Demonstration Test Flight which can be structured to include a variety of additional sensors, control schemes, and operational approaches. This conceptual testbed and flight demonstration will be used to illustrate how technologies and facilities at MSFC can be used to develop and prove an ARD system

Issues in Infrastructure Development Today: The Interlinkages

Brings out the issues in infrastructure development in India linking market failure, policy, regulation, and privatisation in India c. 2000. Is the lead article in the India Infrastructure Repor

Coordination of infrastructure development : some international comparisons

This report presents the findings from a desktop review into how governments across a selection of countries coordinate infrastructure development by working with the industry. The selected countries included the UK (Northern Ireland was examined separately from mainland UK), Canada, Germany, Japan and South Korea. The goal is to identify alternative means of coordinating infrastructure development at the government level, with a view to assist the Institution of Civil Engineers to make the case for a more strategic approach to planning and delivery of infrastructure. The need for this report derives from growing complexity in the way infrastructure development programmes are procured, and the shifting role of government from provider of infrastructure development to enabler of the process of delivery. Thus, an opportunity arose to compare alternative arrangements of government coordination. There were similarities of political governance landscape between the investigated countries regarding strategies of infrastructure delivery. Differences exist however in the way resources are allocated and decisions made regarding infrastructure development. A potential for greater transparency and collaboration between public and private sector was identified. In Germany, for example, local governments enjoy a great deal of autonomy in defining infrastructural requirements, even though the definition of requirements has to align with high-level planning principles at the regional, national and European levels. Delivery of infrastructure development is devolved to the local governments working with a range of stakeholders from both the public and private sectors with funding provided by regional allocations. By contrast, infrastructure development is coordinated by a single high-level government department Canada, Japan and South Korea. The make-up of this department varies across the three countries, with subtle differences in the roles and responsibilities of each constituent part. Nonetheless, the benefits of such an approach include a whole-systems view in decision-making and a somewhat simpler, more transparent way of funding allocation. Furthermore, in the case of Japan and South Korea, resources can be more effectively channelled towards advancing research and development related to infrastructure development capacity and more clarity in terms of skills development. The UK, on the other hand, has a fragmented approach in addressing infrastructure development, with a continuously evolving system of government departments and agencies having some form of influence on determining infrastructural requirements. In order to redress some of the challenges with such fragmentation, the situation in Northern Ireland differs slightly with the formation of a Strategic Investment Board Limited charged with overseeing infrastructure programmes, making delivery more transparent

Inertia in infrastructure development : some analytical aspects, and reasons for inefficient infrastructure choices

This paper uses some simple conceptual models to draw out various implications of infrastructure investments with long lifetimes for the ability of societies to reduce their future greenhouse gas emissions. A broad range of such investments, related both to energy supply and demand systems, may commit societies to high and persistent levels of greenhouse gas emissions over time, that are difficult and costly to change once the investments have been sunk. There are, the author argues, several strong reasons to expect the greenhouse gas emissions embedded in such investments to be excessive. One is that infrastructure investment decisions tend to be made on the basis of (current and expected future) emissions prices that do not fully reflect the social costs of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the investments. A second, related, set of reasons are excessive discounting of future project costs and benefits including future climate damages, and a too-short planning horizon for infrastructure investors. These issues are illustrated for two alternative cases of climate damages, namely with the possibility of a"climate catastrophe,"and with a sustained increase in the marginal global damage cost of greenhouse gas emissions.Climate Change Economics,Energy Production and Transportation,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Environment and Energy Efficiency

Infrastructure and Development Interlinkage in West Bengal: A VAR Analysis

Theoretical propositions proclaim that the association between Infrastructure Availability and Development of a region is quite strong and runs from the former to the latter. Empirical studies are however, inconclusive. While few researchers have concluded that the impact of infrastructure on development levels, though positive, is not significant, equally large numbers of studies claim that infrastructure explains a substantial part of development levels. In this paper the association between infrastructural availability and development for the West Bengal economy is explored using a multidimensional approach and a time series study. It is observed that both developmental and infrastructural indices have shown a continuously rising trend during 1971-2001. The causation seems to be stronger from infrastructure to development. The long run relationships suggest strong positive impact of infrastructural availability on development levels. Different facets of infrastructure seem to have different impacts on different dimensions of development. A segmented policy aiming at specific sectors need to be adopted, with the greatest importance being attached to those infrastructural indicators that have highest total impact and strongest 'linkages' across sectors. Only this can sustain the development 'push' generated in West Bengal. Otherwise, the superstructure will have only a weak base and will come crashing down any day.Infrastructure; Development; Error Correction; VAR; Time Series

WSN infrastructure for green campus development

A system providing accurate environmental data for campus stakeholders to formulate and evaluate policies of the sustainable campus development is needed. This paper presents the design of WSN infrastructure capable of providing accurate, real-time and reliable environment data, namely PM2.5, SO2, CO, O3, NO2, temperature, humidity, soil moisture and light intensity to be analyzed and presented by servers. This infrastructure is composed of fixed sensor nodes, mobile sensor nodes, display nodes and server nodes. The sensor node provides environment raw data to the server using an RF transceiver. The server processes, stores and presents environment information to public users through Internet and mobile network. This infrastructure can be used as a platform to provide environmental data to decision support system for campus stakeholders, so that a recommendation can be made