This timely Research Handbook explores the handling of city and municipal finances in the 21st century. It examines the impact of the Great Recession and COVID-19 pandemic on cities and municipalities, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and avenues for future progress in city and municipal financial management.

Lithuania is experiencing rapid demographic change, with the population ageing and significantly shrinking in recent decades. This trend has put pressure on the provision of public services, especially at the municipal level, and is expected to continue in the coming years. Ongoing efforts are made by Lithuania to improve the delivery of municipal services with the aim to mitigate territorial disparities and foster social inclusion. In this perspective, shared public service provision is viewed as a way to enhance the accessibility, affordability and quality of essential public services. This report provides recommendations and an action plan to address challenges inherent to the legal, fiscal and institutional frameworks for shared municipal service provision in Lithuania, while taking stock of these different challenges. The report also provides two roadmaps for piloting primary healthcare and long-term care services in Tauragė+ functional zone (Jurbarkas, Pagėgiai, Šilalė, Tauragė municipalities) through shared municipal service provision. The report draws lessons from peer country experiences, and in particular Finland, where inter-municipal cooperation has been used successfully for decades.

Managing solid waste is one of the biggest challenges in urban areas around the world. Technologically advanced economies generate vast amounts of organic waste materials, many of which are disposed of in landfills. In the future, efficient use of carbon-containing waste and all other waste materials must be increased to reduce the need for virgin raw materials acquisition, including biomass, and reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere, mitigating climate change. Moreover, expeditious development in information and communications technology (ICT) has made the machines more powerful and efficient, but at the same time, there is a simultaneous decrease in product life leading to an extensive rise in the annual production of e-waste, or electronic waste. Considering the health hazards and environmental implications of e-waste, it has become a global problem that needs serious attention. The Handbook of Research on Safe Disposal Methods of Municipal Solid Wastes for a Sustainable Environment covers waste management principles and strategies in different fields and corresponding applications. The book also focuses on the waste management strategies for a sustainable environment that have emerged. Covering key topics such as waste, energy, and recycling, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for environmentalists, government officials, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.

Municipal Solid Waste Management is an all-encompassing guide that covers the fundamental aspects of solid waste management including type and sources of MSW, factors influencing its generation, and quantity assessment, and then goes on to explore the legal and regulatory framework of waste management. The book provides detailed insights into collection and transfer methods, disposal methods, Pros and cons of different refuse disposal methods, including landfilling, incineration, and waste-to-energy, considering their environmental impact, cost, and feasibility. The book also delves into the practicalities of solid waste management in India, where waste management is a challenging process due to population growth, urbanization, and poor infrastructure. The book explores the latest trends in SWM, waste-to-energy technologies, circular economy concepts, and the use of digital technologies. It also discusses the impact of waste on human health and the environment, the importance of public awareness in ensuring the success of solid waste management initiatives. Municipal Solid Waste Management is an indispensable guide for anyone interested in waste management, including policymakers, environmentalists, waste management professionals, and academics. With its comprehensive coverage of the subject matter and in-depth analysis of key issues, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in solid waste management.

This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of territorial change on the municipal level across all European countries. Taking a thematic and comparative perspective, the book builds on extensive quantitative data and a large survey of academic experts in 33 European countries. Territorial organisation of the municipal level in Europe is strongly diversified and yet far from stable. Politically speaking, territorial reforms tend to be risky and difficult, as such changes affect vital interests and identities. Despite such difficulties, the last two decades have witnessed considerable changes in territorial divisions at the municipal level across a range of European countries. In this book, the authors describe and analyse these changes comprehensively, making a vital contribution to understanding the reasons and dynamics of territorial reform processes. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in local or sub-national government, institutional design and more broadly to political science, public administration/policy, human geography, sociology and economics.