Planning Of State Road Renewal In The Context Of Territorial Reform

In 2021 a new territorial reform will be carried out in Latvia, and the number of existing 110 local governments will be reduced to 42 regions (previous territorial reform in 2009 resulted in the decrease of the number of local governments from 522 parishes down to 110 local governments). Each territorial reform has always regarded the importance of the network of state owned roads in ensuring successful operation of local governments, management of their territories and provision of municipal services to local inhabitants. After the previous territorial reform carried out in 2009 there were 104 centres of local governments that were not connected with paved roads. At present only 59 such centres without paved road connections have remained, and improvements on roads serving these local governments is continued in the scope of annual improvement programmes financed from the state budget. The Ministry of Environment and Regional Development within the scope of the new territorial reform in 2021 is preparing a new Investment Programme for Road Development in the Context of Territorial Reform. Respective road sections are identified by the administrations of planning regions in co-operation with local governments, the programme itself is compiled by the Ministry of Environment and Regional Development, but State Limited Liability Company “Latvian State Roads” is providing consulting on the choice of most efficient rehabilitation methods, preparation of technical documentation and potential construction costs.

EFFECTIVENESS OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICES TO MINIMIZE POST-HARVEST LOSSES OF HORTICULTURAL CROP PRODUCE WEST COAST REGION OF THE GAMBIA

The study examines agricultural extension services and post-harvest technology of horticultural crop produce for smallholder farmers in West Coast Region of The Gambia. The objective of the study is to examine the effectiveness of agricultural extension services in minimizing post-harvest losses of horticultural crop produce. The instruments designed to gather the primary data include; structured interview and focus group discussions (FGD) and key informant interview supported by secondary data using official documents. The sample population consisted of three hundred and ninety-eight (398) respondents using a minimum sample calculation of Taro Yamane in which ten extension officers (10) and two extension agent heads (2) as key informants for a period of three months from September to November 2017. This study employs cluster, purposive and simple random sampling procedures to draw its population. The data was quantitatively analyzed using SPSS to run percentages, frequency distribution tables, t-test, chi-squared correlation test and factorial analysis. Qualitative data from the in-depth interviews and FGDs were also analyzed and presented appropriately. The findings of the study showed that extension services are not very much effective or proactive to post-harvest loss reduction in this region. The study recommends there is the need for continued research, development and investment programme in both extension and post-harvest technologies, effective and efficient communication to the farmers, special extension agents training on post-harvest practices among others. Keywords: Agricultural Extension Services, Effectiveness, Post-Harvest Losses, Horticultural Crop Produce, Smallholder Farmer, The Gambia

Dominican Republic tourism begins fragile recovery

Significance Accounting directly and indirectly for 16-17% of GDP in 2019, tourism is a major plank of the Dominican economy and will be key to broader economic recovery in 2021. With that in mind, the government is striving to encourage visitors back as soon as possible. Impacts Cruises are less important to the Dominican Republic than some smaller islands, but the slow recovery of that sector will be a blow. The president plans to launch an infrastructure investment programme later this year to help boost employment. The dismissal of Health Minister Plutarco Arias over alleged procurement irregularities may undermine government anti-corruption pledges.

A system of key indicators enabling the forecasting of changes in the capital costs of a construction project

Introduction. Reduction of project cost overruns is a key objective of Russian production facilities against the background of tightening domestic and international market competition, a spike in the number of projects implemented within the framework of the investment programme, including large strategic investment projects, scarcity and high costs of sources of financing. The mission of this research is to offer an approach to the development of a system of key risk indicators of an construction project that will allow the management team to make decisions ahead of the occurrence of risk-bearing events to reduce cost overruns and to stay within the pre-set budget values in terms of capital costs of a project. Materials and methods. The co-authors have analyzed currently used approaches, instruments and methods, applicable to the development of the system of key project indicators, and classified project risks using the Ishikawa diagram. Their approach encompasses instruments and methods of the risk theory (identification and assessment of risks and key project indicators), as well as instruments of the regression correlation analysis. Results. The co-authors present an algorithm for the development of a system of key risk indicators and an approach to the listing of key project indicators broken down by project significance criteria. Conclusions. The application of the proposed approach to highly significant projects will ensure a detailed project-specific listing of key project indicators applicable to monitor the project implementation. A standard set of instruments and methods, requiring minimal human resources and time, can be applied to other projects. Besides the new approach, the co-authors offer a description of a list of potential key project indicators that enable to forecast changes in capital costs, broken down by risk factors.

Assessment of Urban Sprawl and Its Impacts on Rural Landmasses of Colombo District: A Study Based on Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

Urban sprawl is one of the significant issues faced by cities in Sri Lanka today. Urban sprawl is unplanned and uneven pattern of growth, driven by a multitude of processes and leading to inefficient resource utilisation. This study evaluates urban sprawl and its impact on rural land masses of Colombo district, Sri Lanka in 1997, 2009 and 2018 using Shannon’s entropy values. Maximum likelihood supervised classification was applied for Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS (Operational Land Imager/Thermal Infrared Sensor 2018) and Landsat 5 TM (Thematic Mapper 1997, 2009) satellite images to get the build- up areas and then the Shannon’s entropy values using GIS were assessed. Calculated built-up areas were 98.97 (14.6 %), 178.76 (26.38%), 276.80 (40.85%) km2 and Shannon’s entropy values were 0.928, 1.009 and 1.059 for the years 1997, 2009 and 2018, respectively. Since Shannon’s entropy is an efficient indicator to measure urban sprawl, it is observed that Colombo district continues to sprawl from 1997 to 2018. The analysis of the results further showed that rapid increase of built-up area resulted in decrease in vegetation and agricultural areas. Calculated relative entropy values were 0.83, 0.91 and 0.95 for consecutive years, which has an increasing trend and exceeded the threshold value of 0.5 indicating a higher level of urban sprawl in Colombo district. Developed maps show that since 1997, the city has experienced pronounced urban sprawl along the main roads of Colombo district consuming rural lands at a faster pace as population shifts from urban areas. Prioritised policies in Government’s public investment programme 2017–2020 for sustainable urban development may help concentrate growth within targeted areas and restrain sprawling development in rural settings of Colombo district. Further, similar studies are encouraged to check the effectiveness of applying policies.

Storage of Terminalia superba Engl. & Diels. Seeds

Teminalia superba is one of the species receiving priority under the on-going Forest Investment Programme in Ghana. A more comprehensive look at the response of the seeds to storage is therefore important for their use in afforestation, reforestation activities, breeding programmes and long term conservation. Seeds of T. superba were harvested in October, 2016 from Amantia in the Ashanti Region of Ghana and immediately processed. Drawn seed samples were dried over silica gel to reduce seed moisture content to 10% and 5% respectively. Moisture content of seeds was determined by drying in an oven at 103° C for 17 hours. Seeds were placed in two types of storage containers namely, hermetic glass bottles and plastic bottles. These were placed at three different temperature conditions namely; ambient temperature (28-32°C), refrigerator temperature (4-5°C) and freezing temperature (-10°C) and stored for a period of 24 months with the conduction of germination tests every two months at the laboratory and plant house of the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana. Germination tests were conducted in a medium of heat sterilized river sand at the plant house with ambient temperature of 27-33°C. The statistical design used in the investigation was a completely randomized design in a 2 x 2 x 3 factorial (moisture levels × storage containers × storage temperatures). Storage of seeds in hermetic glass bottles was found to have maintained seeds at a higher viability level than storage in plastic bottles. Both freezing and refrigeration temperatures were found to be ideal storage conditions. Storage at 5% moisture content resulted in higher viability of seeds. The electrical conductivity test was found to be an efficient test for distinguishing good quality seeds from poor seeds of the species.