As a vital method to resolve conflicts between water use in upstream and downstream areas and solve the problem of transboundary water pollution, watershed ecological compensation is widely used worldwide. It is necessary to analyze the influencing factors of watershed ecological compensation from the perspective of how different governments interact with each other. However, the previous literature has paid less attention to the special situation of cross-regional water diversion projects, the changing processes of governmental behavior, and the interventions by the central government. Therefore, when taking the upstream and downstream governments and the central government in the basin of a cross-regional water diversion project as research objects, it is important to study their behavior and influencing factors to improve the ecological compensation system in the basin. This paper first analyzes the interactions among upstream, downstream, and central governments in the basin, based on evolutionary game theory. Second, the evolutionary game models before and after the interventions by the central government were developed separately, and the effects of different contexts on the dynamic evolutionary process were analyzed. Finally, taking the Hanjiang River Basin as an example, which is where the water source area of China's South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Project is located, the opportunity cost of protecting the water environment in the upstream areas of this basin was estimated by establishing an econometric regression model using data on water quality and gross domestic product. The results show that (1) the initial probabilities of governments affect their final behaviors; (2) even without the supervision of the central government, it is still possible for upstream and downstream governments to reach the desired state spontaneously; (3) the supervision of the central government can promote upstream and downstream governments to reach a stable state faster; and (4) the current level of compensation from the central government is significantly lower than the opportunity cost of protecting the water environment for upstream governments in the Hanjiang River Basin. This paper can provide helpful insights for improving the ecological compensation system in the basin, which helps promote cooperation in water environment protection.
Park-and-ride (P&R) schemes are an important way of increasing the public transport mode share, which relieves the negative impact caused by excessive automobile usage. Several existing studies have been conducted in the past to explore the factors that can influence the acceptance of P&R by travelers. However, quantitative analyses of the pertinent factors and rates of traveler choice are quite rare. In this paper, the data collected from a survey in Melbourne, Australia, is used to analyze the acceptance of P&R by travelers going to the central business district (CBD). In particular, we explore the influence that specific factors have on the choice of travel by those who are currently using P&R. The results indicate that the parking fee in the CBD area, travel time on public transport, and P&R transfer time affect traveler use of P&R. A quantitative assessment of the impact of these three factors is conducted by using a cumulative logistic regression model. Results reveal that the P&R transfer time has the highest sensitivity while public transport travel time has the least. To maximize the use of P&R facilities and public transport, insights into setting parking fees and designing P&R stations are presented.
This study examines how the nomenclature of street food names includes trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national scales in local language resources. The study adopts a qualitative case study on street food names in Malaysia. The study sample comprised 856 street food names collected in Kuala Lumpur. The food nomenclature framework and the concepts of trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national scales were adopted to elicit the data. It was found that: (i) there are more complex combinations based on ingredient, cooking method, food attribute, commemorative aspect, and good name; (ii) there are scale-making ways, via the presentation and the transliteration of street food elements. In conclusion, the nomenclature of street food names labels Malaysia as a multiscalar locality in which trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national scales can be discerned. Thus, this study reveals how nomenclature shapes and is shaped by geographical scales. Therefore, it contributes to the nomenclature of food and place marketing.