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Sample records for mulligan sustained natural

  1. Efficacy of mulligan's self-sustained natural apophyseal glides in decreasing pain, disability, and improving neck mobility among the nursing professional suffering from work-related neck pain

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    Shagun Aggarwal

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Prevalence of neck pain in nursing professionals (NPs is much higher than in the general population. However, concrete evidence is not available regarding the efficacy of the therapeutic intervention for treating neck pain among them. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of Mulligan's self-sustained natural apophyseal glides (SNAGs and conventional physiotherapy in the management of work-related neck pain (WRNP among the NPs. Materials and Methods: A total of 38 NPs with WRNP were recruited using the simple random sampling (lottery method to participate in this two group such as pretest–posttest and single-blinded randomized controlled study from recognized tertiary care teaching hospital. Recruited NPs were randomly allocated into two groups such as Group A and Group B. NP in Group A taught self-SNAGs with a towel and instructed to perform 10 repetitions ×1 set/two hour ×4 times/day for 5 days/week ×2 weeks. Whereas in Group B, NPs received conventional physiotherapy treatment, consist of neck isometrics, and performed for 10 s ×10 repetitions ×1 set/day ×5 days/week ×2 weeks. Both groups were asked to use the hot pack for 15 min, before their intervention. Visual Analog Scale (VAS score, neck disability index (NDI, and cervical range of motion (ROM were documented at baseline, 2nd-week postintervention, and 4th-week follow-up period and analyzed. Results: Group A revealed statistical significance difference (P < 0.05 in VAS, NDI, and neck ROM when compared to Group B. Conclusion: Mulligan's self-SNAGs have proved to be more beneficial over the conventional physiotherapy in the management of WRNP among the NPs.

  2. EFFICACY OF MULLIGAN MOBILIZATION VERSUS MUSCLE ENERGY TECHNIQUE IN CHRONIC SACROILIAC JOINT DYSFUNCTION

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    Sabah Mohammed Easa Alkady

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Background: Sacroiliac joint dysfunction represents 15% of low back pain conditions. Normal sacroiliac joint works as a safeguard and transmits upper body weight into the pelvis and lower extremities. If the SIJ is hypomobile, it cannot effectively absorb forces and other body parts may be overstressed causing musculoskeletal dysfunction. The study conducted by comparing the effectiveness of Mulligan mobilization versus muscle energy technique in chronic SIJ dysfunction. Methods: 45 patients with chronic sacroiliac joint dysfunction from both genders joined the study. They were divided into three groups 15 in each group. Group A: received Mulligan mobilization with movement using posterior and anterior innominate methods plus conventional treatment program. Group B: received muscle energy technique using a post-isometric relaxation technique to erector spinae, hamstrings, iliopsoas and quadratus lumborum plus conventional treatment program. Group C: control group obtained conventional treatment program only. Doppler imaging of vibration, palpation meter, and the visual analogue scale was utilized for evaluating patients (pre and post-treatment. Results: The study findings revealed a statistical remarkable improvement in post-intervention values for sacroiliac mobility in Mulligan mobilization group (p > 0.0001 and a statistically significant decrease of anterior pelvic tilting angle in Mulligan mobilization and muscle energy technique groups (p > 0.0001, also a significant decrease of pain in the 3 groups compared with pre-intervention values (p > 0.0001, additionally, Mulligan mobilization group showed a statistical high detectable difference in right and left sacroiliac mobility more than muscle energy technique and control groups (p > 0.0001. Conclusion: Mulligan mobilization is more effective than muscle energy technique in the treatment of chronic sacroiliac joint dysfunction.

  3. To compare effects of maitland and mulligan mobilization techniques in the treatment of frozen shoulder

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haider, R.; Ahmad, A.

    2014-01-01

    To compare the role of Maitland mobilization and Mulligan's mobilization techniques in treatment of frozen shoulder and its possible effect in early gaining of ROM and Pain management. Methods: This was a randomized control trial conducted at Department of Physiotherapy ana Orthopedics unit I, KEMU / Mayo Hospital, Lahore. There were two group of patients each group contained 30 patients. Patients were treated with Mulligan's technique in Group - A and with Maitland manual therapy technique in Group - B. Patients in both treatment groups were followed till 6 weeks and improvement in range of motion parameters were recorded at every follow up visit of the patients. SPSS was used for data entry and analysis. Results: In the study 60 patients were enrolled. Mean age of Group - A patients was 46.23 ± 9.71 years, and mean age of Group - B patients was 47 ± 9.21 years. In Group - A 14 patients duration of onset was 8 weeks, 4 patients duration of onset was 10 weeks and 12 patients duration of onset was 12 weeks. In Group - B 14 patients duration of onset was 8 weeks, 8 patients duration of onset was 10 weeks and 12 weeks each respectively. It was observed that patients who were treated with Mulligan technique their abduction and flexion was improved greatly as compared to those who were treated with Maitland technique. Patients who were treated with Mulligan technique their flex- ion was improved greatly as compared to those who were treated with Maitland technique. At 6th week mean extension in Maitland's treatment group was 52.50 ± 8.66 where as that Mulligan's treatment group was 52.00 ± 7.58. It was observed that patients in both treatment groups had same improvement in extension and it was statistically same. In both treatment groups patients had same improvement in medial rotation and it was statistically same. At 6th week mean lateral rotation in both treatment groups was 42.65 ± 24.47 and 53.50 ± 23.03. It was observed that patients in

  4. [Shoulder joint pain of rotator cuff injury treated with electroacupuncture and Mulligan's mobilization: a randomized controlled trial].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yanwu; Wang, Chongmin; Chen, Huade; Ye, Xinmiao

    2018-01-12

    To verify the clinical therapeutic effects on shoulder joint pain of rotator cuff injury treated with electroacupuncture (EA) and Mulligan's mobilization. A total of 120 patients of shoulder joint pain of rotator cuff injury were randomized into an EA group, a rehabilitation group and a combined therapy group, 40 cases in each one. In the EA group, EA was applied to Jianzhen (SI 9), Jianliao (TE 14), Jianyu (LI 15), Tianzong (SI 11), Jianqian (extra) and Binao (LI 14) in the affected side. Of these acupoints, Jianliao (TE 14) and Jianyu (LI 15), Jianzhen (SI 9) and Tianzong (SI 11) were stimulated with Han 's electric apparatus. In the rehabilitation group, Mulligan's mobilization was used, including scapular mobilization, static joint mobilization and dynamic joint mobilization. In the combined therapy group, EA was used in combination with Mulligan mobilization. The treatment was given once a day in each group, 5 sessions a week, totally for 6 weeks. The pain intensity of shoulder joint (VAS), the University of California at Los Angeles shoulder rating scale (UCLA) and the range of motion (ROM) of shoulder joint were evaluated before and 6 weeks after treatment separately. The adverse reactions were recorded in each group. VAS scores were all reduced, UCLA scores increased and ROM improved after treatment as compared with those before treatment in the patients of the three groups (all P joint pain of rotator cuff injury, better than the simple application of either EA or Mulligan's mobilization.

  5. KOMBINASI TEKNIK MULLIGAN DAN FASILITASI VASUS MEDIALIS OBLIQUUS LEBIH EFEKTIF MENINGKATKAN AKTIVITAS FUNGSIONAL DARIPADA APLIKASI KINESIO TAPING PADA SINDROMA NYERI SENDI PATELLOFEMORAL

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    Atika Yulianti

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Patellofemoral pain syndrome is complained of knee pain by young adults who are productive oftenly, syndrome characterized by pain that is felt around the kneecap, and aggravated the activity squat and stand, up and down stairs, and change the position of the knee after a long standstill ( stand up after sitting for a long time. This is due to the weakness of the thigh muscles especially vasus medialis obliquus. Reinforcement of weak muscle in particular strengthening of the vastus medialis  oblique an appropriate treatment to increase the functional activity of the syndrome. The study was a randomized experiment with pre and post-test group design. This study aimed to compare the combining of mulligan techniques and facilitate of vasus medialis obliquus with application of kinesio taping to increase the functional activity of the lower extremities. In this study, 11 respondents were given a combination of mulligan techniques and facilitation of vastus medialis oblique for 5 weeks with a frequency of exercise 3 times a week, and 11 respondents provided application of kinesio taping for 5 weeks with 3 days and replaced with a new taping. Each treatment was measured by the Lower Extremity Fungtional Scale before and after 5 weeks. Statistical analysis parametric paired sample t-test results is the influence of a combining of mulligan techniques and facilitate of vastus medialis oblique and application of kinesio taping to increase the functional activity of the lower extremities with p<0.05. Test of different with the independent sample t-test with a result there are significant difference between the combining of techniques mulligan and facilitation of vasus medialis obliquus with application of kinesio taping values with  p <0.05. Conclusions in this study that a combining of mulligan techniques and facilitation of vasus medialis obliquus, 3 times a week for 5 weeks effectively to increase the functional activity of the lower extremities of

  6. The effects of extracorporeal shock-wave therapy (ESWT versus Mulligan concept of manual therapy in treating lateral epicondylitis = Efektywność terapii zewnątrzustrojową falą uderzeniową versus terapia manualna w koncepcji Mulligana w leczeniu zapalenia nadkłykcia bocznego

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    Janusz Kocjan

    2016-07-01

    SUMMARY Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT is a conservative treatment in case of many musculoskeletal disorders, including lateral epicondylitis. The aim of the study was the assessment of the efficacy of the shockwave - compare to manual therapy treatment (Mulligan concept in a population of consecutive patients affected by tennis elbow. 26 patients who suffered from chronic persistent tennis elbow were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment groups. Group 1 (n=13, mean age=37,14±10,07 received an extracorporeal shock wave treatment (ESWT; 2,500 shocks, while Group 2 (n=13, mean age= was undergoing manual therapy in Mulligan concept. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS and Patient-Rated Tennis Elbow Evaluation (PRTEE were used. The results of the study presented here shows that ESWT and Mulligan therapy are an effective treatment of lateral epicondylitis. Both groups achieved improvement in all of analysed variables, but in case of Mulligan Concept statistical significant differences were found in 4 from 6 variables. It is concluded that ESWT and Mulligan therapy appears to be a useful non invasive treatment methods that reduces the symptoms of lateral epicondylitis.   Key words: ESWT, mulligan, tennis elbow, lateral epicondylitis.

  7. The Influence of Mulligan Ankle Taping on Dynamic Balance in the Athletes with and without Chronic Ankle Instability

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    Tahereh Pourkhani

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Objective: The ankle joint is the most frequently injured anatomical site in athletes. Ankle instability is responsible for 25% of all time lost from sport. Clinical efficacy of the effect of taping in athletes with chronic ankle instability is unknown. So the purpose of this investigation is the study of the influence of Mulligan ankle taping on dynamic balance in the athletes with and without chronic ankle instability. Materials & Methods: 32 athletes participated in this investigation: 16 subjects with chronic ankle instability, 6 women and 10 men (age 23.5±0.3 years, height 175.4±10.3 cm, weight 73.6±14.5 kg, Foot Ankle Disability Index 74.5±8.62% and Foot Ankle Disability Index Sport 63.5±7.86% and 16 healthy subjects, 6 women and 10 men (age 22.81±7.1 years, height 173.6±12.26 cm, weight 66.4±11.4 kg, Foot Ankle Disability Index and Foot Ankle Disability Index Sport 100%. Dynamic balance was assessed with Star Excursion Balance Test in 3 reaching directions (medial, antero-medial and postero-medial before and after Mulligan ankle taping. Independent and paired t-test were used for statistical analysis. Results: Dynamic balance in healthy group significantly was better than injured group (P&le0.05. Application of taping caused significantly improvement in dynamic balance in both groups (reaching in media, antero-medial and postero-medial directions (P&le0.05 (except reaching in antero-medial direction in healthy group (P>0.05. Conclusion: So it seems that Mulligan ankle taping can improve dynamic balance in the athletes with and without chronic ankle instability.

  8. MULLIGAN MOBILIZATION VERSUS STRETCHING ON THE MANAGEMENT OF PIRIFORMIS SYNDROME A COMPARATIVE STUDY

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    Samahir Abuaraki Elbkheet

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Background: Piriformis syndrome is a commonly overlooked specific cause of low back pain. Apart from mimicking the sciatica-like symptoms, unilateral piriformis tightness can cause rotational dysfunction and pain in the lumbar region. This could lead to low back pain which is a common musculo skeletal problem and a major reason for activity limitation. Stretching the piriformis tightened muscle is a preferred choice of treatment against surgical intervention to release the muscle. Mulligan’s mobilization is based on movement with mobilization which is proven to be effective in many musculo skeletal dysfunctions including the lumbar spine. The purpose of this study is to explore and compare the two treatment methods in relieving the low back pain in clinical conditions with piriformis syndrome. Methods: In this experimental study, 40 patients with piriformis syndrome were selected and divided into two groups. One group was given only piriformis stretching for the tightened muscle and the other group given Mulligan mobilization for lumbo sacral joints. VAS and lower limb functional index were taken to compare before and after the treatment regime of 4 weeks. Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in both pain scale and lower limb mobility and function. But there was significant improvement in pain relief and LLFI after the treatment regime in both groups compared to the pre-treatment status. Conclusion: Even as the piriformis syndrome is caused by the tightness of the muscle, the consequence in the lower back and lumbar spine mobility can be improved by a Mulligan mobilization as a single mode of intervention.

  9. The Effect of Mulligan Mobilization Technique in Older Adults with Neck Pain: A Randomized Controlled, Double-Blind Study

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    Oznur Buyukturan

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Mulligan mobilization technique (MMT on pain, range of motion (ROM, functional level, kinesiophobia, depression, and quality of life (QoL in older adults with neck pain (NP. Methods. Forty-two older adults with NP were included in the study, and they were randomly divided into two groups: traditional physiotherapy (TP group and traditional physiotherapy-Mulligan mobilization (TPMM group. Treatment program was scheduled for 10 sessions. Participants were assessed in terms of pain, ROM, functional level, kinesiophobia, depression, and QoL both pre- and posttreatment. Results. Pain, ROM, functional level, kinesiophobia, depression, and QoL improved in both groups following treatment (p<0.05. When comparing effects of these two treatment programs, it was observed that the TPMM group had a better outcome (p<0.05 in terms of ROM, kinesiophobia, depression, and QoL. Conclusion. In older adults with NP, MMT has been found to have significant effects on pain, ROM, functional level, kinesiophobia, depression, and QoL as long as it is performed by a specialist. “This trial is registered with NCT03507907”.

  10. Effective Treatment of an Apparent Meniscal Injury Using the Mulligan Concept

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    Alex J. Rhinehart

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Objective: Present a clinic case demonstrating the effectiveness of the Mulligan Concept (MC in treating an apparent meniscal injury. The utilization of the MC in the evaluation and treatment of a 20-year-old soccer player with an apparent acute meniscal injury is presented. Background: Meniscal injuries are common knee injuries. The MC is a therapeutic intervention strategy applied as both a treatment-based evaluation and therapeutic intervention. Treatment: The patient was successfully treated in four treatment sessions using the MC. The patient experienced minimal clinically-important differences on a variety of global and regional patient-rated outcomes. Uniqueness: To the author’s knowledge, there are currently no published case reports of using the MC in clinical practice to treat an apparent meniscal pathology. Conclusion: The MC can be utilized as an evaluation and treatment technique in patients suspected of having meniscal pathology in the knee.

  11. Nature tourism: a sustainable tourism product

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    Violante Martínez Quintana

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Nature tourism has emerged in the tourism field as a result of a logical evolution in line with public policies and academic research. After negative outcomes from traditional models first raised the alarm, the entire sector has tried to foster local development based on models of responsibility and sustainability. This article revises key concepts of nature – based tourism and shows new tendencies and the perception of cultural landscapes that are seen as tourism products. Finally, it concludes by analysing new tendencies to foster alternative nature – based tourism. It also presents a planning proposal based on a responsible and sustainable tourism model to guarantee a sustainable tourism product within the natural and cultural heritage context.

  12. Sustainable Development: Natural and Scientific Principles. Summary

    OpenAIRE

    Kuznetsov Oleg; Bolshakov Boris

    2002-01-01

    The book contains a brief summary of "Sustainable Development: Natural and Scientific Principles" textbook. The connection of sustainable development with the fundamental laws of the nature - society - man system, the logic of the transfer to sustainable development in ecology, economics, finances, politics and education are principally new in the mentioned textbook. A special attention is paid to synthesis and comparison of interconnections and knowledge in the creative process of research a...

  13. NATURAL RESOURCES AVAILABILITY IN A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY

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    CĂTĂLINA BONCIU

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available In the theoretical and practical approach of the economic life, appears more often the idea of sustainable economic development, of reconciliation between man and nature in attracting and using its resources without interfering in its natural movement and evolution. In this paper we are trying to bring to light the relation between the economic development and the mineral resources, in terms of achieving sustainable development. The place and role of natural factors in the market economy is revealed by bringing to the forefront a number of arguments that demonstrate their vital position in the sustainable growth and development.

  14. Biosurfactants research trends and applications

    CERN Document Server

    Mulligan, Catherine N; Sharma, Sanjay K

    2014-01-01

    Green chemistry and Biosurfactant ResearchCatherine N. Mulligan, Sanjay K. Sharma, Ackmez Mudhoo,and Komal MakhijaniAmphiphilic Molecules of Microbial Origin: Classification, Characteristics, Genetic Regulations, and Pathways for BiosynthesisGunaseelan Dhanarajan and Ramkrishna SenRhamnolipids: Characteristics, Production, Applications, and AnalysisFereshteh Arab and Catherine N. MulliganSophorolipids: Characteristics, Production, and ApplicationsVivek K. Morya and Eun-Ki KimBiosurfactants and Bioemulsifiers from Marine SourcesRengathavasi Thavasi and Ibrahim M. BanatCharacterization, Production, and Applications of LipopeptidesCatherine N. MulliganBiosurfactants in the Food IndustryMarcia Nitschke and Siddhartha G.V.A.O. CostaTrehalose BiosurfactantsNelly Christova and Ivanka StoinevaBiosurfactant-Mediated Nanoparticle Synthesis: A Green and SustainableApproachVivek Rangarajan, Snigdha Majumder, and Ramkrishna SenEnhancement of Remediation Technologies with BiosurfactantsCatherine N. MulliganBiosurfactant Co...

  15. Sustainability of nature-based tourism

    OpenAIRE

    Törn, A. (Anne)

    2007-01-01

    Abstract Nature-based tourism has increased considerably during recent years, which has raised questions about the tolerance of ecosystems experiencing growing visitor numbers. The present thesis focuses on the ecological and social sustainability of nature-based tourism in protected areas and their surroundings. The objective of the ecological studies was to determine the effects of tourism on vegetation, soils and risk of introduction of alien plant species. The social survey investigate...

  16. Sustainable regional development and natural hazard impacts

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    Petrova, Elena; Svetlosanov, Vladimir; Kudin, Valery

    2016-04-01

    During the last decades, natural hazard impacts on social and economic development in many countries were increasing due to the expansion of human activities into the areas prone to natural risks as well as to increasing in number and severity of natural hazardous events caused by climate changes and other natural phenomena. The escalation of severe disasters (such as Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan 2011) triggered by natural hazards and related natural-technological and environmental events is increasingly threatening sustainable development at different levels from regional to global scale. In our study, we develop a model of ecological, economic and social sustainable development for the European part of Russia and the Republic of Belarus. The model consists of six blocks including 1) population, 2) environment, 3) mineral resources, 4) geographic space, 5) investments, and 6) food production and import. These blocks were created based on the analysis of the main processes at the regional level; all the blocks are closely interrelated between each other. Reaching the limit values of block parameters corresponds to a sharp deterioration of the system; as a result, the system can lose its stability. Aggravation of natural and natural-technological risk impacts on each block and should be taken into account in the model of regional development. Natural hazards can cause both strong influences and small but permanent perturbations. In both cases, a system can become unstable. The criterion for sustainable development is proposed. The Russian Foundation for Humanities and Belorussian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research supported the study (project 15-22-01008).

  17. Managing Natural Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods: Uniting ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    2003-07-31

    Jul 31, 2003 ... Management of local resources has a greater chance of a ... Managing Natural Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods: Uniting Science and Participation ... innovative approaches for establishing and sustaining participation and ... A new IDRC-supported project will help improve water conservation and ...

  18. Managing Natural Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods: Uniting ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    31 juil. 2003 ... Management of local resources has a greater chance of a sustainable outcome when there is partnership between local people and external agencies, and agendas relevant to their aspirations and circumstances. Managing Natural Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods analyses and extends this premise ...

  19. SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES FOR ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    economic effects which the location of natural resources has on host ... water bodies in an oil exploration and exploitation communities in Oguta local .... law, energy, atmosphere, sustainable tourism, biodiversity, biotechnology, finance,.

  20. Nature-Inspired Design : Strategies for Sustainable Product Development

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    De Pauw, I.C.

    2015-01-01

    Product designers can apply different strategies, methods, and tools for sustainable product development. Nature-Inspired Design Strategies (NIDS) offer designers a distinct class of strategies that use ‘nature’ as a guiding source of knowledge and inspiration for addressing sustainability.

  1. Natural gums and modified natural gums as sustained-release carriers.

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    Bhardwaj, T R; Kanwar, M; Lal, R; Gupta, A

    2000-10-01

    Although natural gums and their derivatives are used widely in pharmaceutical dosage forms, their use as biodegradable polymeric materials to deliver bioactive agents has been hampered by the synthetic materials. These natural polysaccharides do hold advantages over the synthetic polymers, generally because they are nontoxic, less expensive, and freely available. Natural gums can also be modified to have tailor-made materials for drug delivery systems and thus can compete with the synthetic biodegradable excipients available in the market. In this review, recent developments in the area of natural gums and their derivatives as carriers in the sustained release of drugs are explored.

  2. Human-Nature for Climate Action: Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Sustainability

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    Helen Santiago Fink

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The global climate change agenda proceeds at an incremental pace while the Earth is approaching critical tipping points in its development trajectory. Climate action at this pinnacle juncture needs to be greatly accelerated and rooted in the fundamentals of the problem—human beings’ disconnection from nature. This paper underscores the valuable role nature and nature-based solutions can play in addressing climate change at the city scale and its implications for broader sustainability. Urban ecosystems (nature in cities are seen as an integral part of a proposed local climate action rubric wherein policy measures and integrated planning guide lowcarbon/impact development to create more resilient and sustainable urban environments. The use of green infrastructure is highlighted as a cost-effective means to contribute to mitigation and adaptation needs as well as to promote human wellbeing. The paper takes an exploratory view of the influence of ecosystem services, particularly cultural services, and its economics in relation to the individual and society to understand how biophilia can be nurtured to promote environmental stewardship and climate action.

  3. The human right to sustainable development in solidarity with Nature

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    Anya Teresa Parrilla Díaz

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available This article addresses the issue of human development as a universal right subjected to the welfare of Nature. Nature is presented as supporter of life and supplier of the essential resources needed to achieve a complete human development. In light of the global ecological crisis, the author proposes sustainable development as the central framework for a new human development that can be fairer to Nature and to mankind. The challenge of sustainable human development consists in viewing Nature from an ethical perspective of human rights and solidarity.

  4. A study on the determination of the natural park's sustainable tourism potential.

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    Cetin, Mehmet; Zeren, Ilknur; Sevik, Hakan; Cakir, Cansel; Akpinar, Huseyin

    2018-02-23

    The surface site of Yesilyuva Nature Park encompasses natural, social, economic, and cultural characteristics and has become a marker of the region's natural and cultural heritage. To support the preservation of this site, promotional activities should be planned. In this study, because of tourism and related opinions of residents and visitors alike in terms of their natural determination, an important cultural and historical feature is aimed at evaluating the tourism potential of Yesilyuva Nature Park. This framework is designed to establish prospective tourism sustainability. As a result, Yesilyuva Nature Park's natural and cultural properties have been determined to be suitable for sustainable tourism activities using geographic information systems (GIS). This protection in the field, which balances sustainability and landscape design, will provide for the development of tourism activities. In the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis and survey, residents and visitors reported that the most important feature of the Yesilyuva Nature Park was its natural beauty. Visitors often come to observe traditional and natural life and to engage in tourism activities. All the data, which includes maps derived from GIS, represents landscape planning for sustainable tourism areas in Yesilyuva Nature Park.

  5. Sustainable Food Processing Inspired by Nature.

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    Sybesma, Wilbert; Blank, Imre; Lee, Yuan-Kun

    2017-04-01

    Here, we elaborate on the natural origin and use of enzymes and cultures in sustainable food processing. We also illustrate how enzymatically treated or fermented food can contribute to solving challenges involving nutrition and health, such as aging, malnutrition, obesity, and allergy. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  6. ECONOMIC NATURE AND THE ROLE OF NATURAL RESOURCES PAYMENTS UNDER SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

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    A. Zalievska-Shyshak

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The nature and value of natural resources payments under sustainable economic development are revealed. Mechanisms of using of natural resources potential of Ukraine are examined. Payments for use of natural resources is one of the most important components of an economic mechanism of nature management are established. Features of current legislation as to the setting fees for nature management are studied and the necessity of creating an effective institutional support in controlling of tax authorities for the collection of payments for natural resources and their evaluation is proved.

  7. Sustainable Management of Natural Resources for Socio-Economic ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper studies sustainable management of natural resources for socio economic development in Imo state. This it does with the aim to determine the extent to which the exploration and exploitation of natural resources has affected the ecological and environmental conditions of the area. The research also tends to ...

  8. Natural Resources Accounting and Sustainable Development: The ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Natural Resources Accounting and Sustainable Development: The Challenge to Economics and Accounting Profession. ... African Research Review ... The approach used in achieving this objective is by identifying the present position, limitations and the challenges for the economics and accounting professions.

  9. Static stretch versus Mulligan Concept – long-term effects in gymnast’s flexibility

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    Manuela Karloh

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Flexibility is one of the most important physical aspects in Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG. The purpose of the study was to compare long-term changes in flexibility of hip extension in athletes of RG in function of two techniques: the static stretch and Mulligan’s Long Leg Traction. Participated eight female athletes with an average age of 13,25±0,89 years old, divided into two groups. Group 1 performed Mulligan technique and Group 2 performed static stretch. Flexibility training lasts for six weeks. It was executed 2 times a week, and was composed by 2 repetitions of 30 seconds for each lower limb. Photogrammetry was used to assess the range of motion (ROM of hip extension. ROM was assessed before and after six weeks of training. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The increase of ROM was statistically significant in both lower limbs in Group 1, and in right lower limb (RLL in Group 2. After six weeks of training the increase of ROM in Group 1 was 6,25°± 2,75º in left lower limb (LLL and 5,25°± 2,63º in RLL, and the increase in Group 2 was 6,75º± 4,64º in LLL and 5,5º± 3,41º in RLL. Comparing the two executed techniques, in relation to the increase of ROM, there were no statistically significant differences. We conclude that after six weeks of training the two proposed techniques have showed increases in range of motion.

  10. Sustainability Assessment of the Natural Gas Industry in China Using Principal Component Analysis

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    Xiucheng Dong

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Under pressure toward carbon emission reduction and air protection, China has accelerated energy restructuring by greatly improving the supply and consumption of natural gas in recent years. However, several issues with the sustainable development of the natural gas industry in China still need in-depth discussion. Therefore, based on the fundamental ideas of sustainable development, industrial development theories and features of the natural gas industry, a sustainable development theory is proposed in this thesis. The theory consists of five parts: resource, market, enterprise, technology and policy. The five parts, which unite for mutual connection and promotion, push the gas industry’s development forward together. Furthermore, based on the theoretical structure, the Natural Gas Industry Sustainability Index in China is established and evaluated via the Principal Component Analysis (PCA method. Finally, a conclusion is reached: that the sustainability of the natural gas industry in China kept rising from 2008 to 2013, mainly benefiting from increasing supply and demand, the enhancement of enterprise profits, technological innovation, policy support and the optimization and reformation of the gas market.

  11. Natural resource workshop: Public/private partnership for sustainable use of natural resources

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1995-07-01

    As part of an effort to shape Federal policy for environmentally sound, sustainable economic development, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy sponsored a workshop in Boise, Idaho on February 1--2, 1995. The Boise Idaho workshop focused on the sustainable use of natural resources, a topic of considerable interest in Idaho. The workshop gave representatives from industry, academia, research, the public, and local and state government an opportunity to provide input to lawmakers and policymakers for establishing a National Environmental Technology Strategy to be issued by Earth Day, 1995.

  12. Natural hazard management and sustainable development: a questionable link

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    Lauren Andres

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available This article examines the nature of the possible link between natural hazards and sustainable development through a study of the area to the south of Grenoble in the French Alps, a zone subject to two major natural hazards: the extensive landslide known as the "Séchilienne Ruins" and flooding from the Romanche and Drac rivers. More specifically, the study analyzes the assumed transition from the management of natural hazards to the sustainable management of an area subject to natural hazards and is divided into three stages. Thus the link between natural hazards and sustainability is considered as: 1 an association that is entirely relative, 2 one that is logical but limited in the field, 3 one that is above all indirect. The interactions identified between risk and sustainability, in legislative as well as ideal and operational terms, are found to be complex and not necessarily explicit. They depend in particular on the juxtaposition of multiple territorial scales or spatial boundaries (national to local that bring into conflict the different strategies of the actors involved – from decision-makers to technical specialists.Cet article questionne la nature du lien envisageable entre risque naturel et développement durable à travers l’étude du territoire du sud grenoblois, soumis notamment à deux aléas naturels majeurs : le mouvement de terrain de grande ampleur dit des « Ruines de Séchilienne » et les probables crues de la Romanche et du Drac. Trois étapes structurent cette réflexion questionnant la transition supposée entre une gestion des risques naturels et une gestion durable des territoires soumis aux risques naturels : une association toute relative, un lien logique mais limité sur le terrain, une relation surtout indirecte. Les interactions identifiées, en termes législatifs mais aussi idéels et opérationnels, entre risque et durabilité se révèlent ainsi complexes et ne sont pas forcément explicites ; elles d

  13. Sustainability, Virtue Ethics, and the Virtue of Harmony with Nature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jordan, Karen; Kristjánsson, Kristján

    2017-01-01

    This article argues that the dominant sustainable development approach fails to acknowledge the interconnectedness and interrelatedness of social and environmental issues, and that sustainability requires a "transformational" approach, involving a fundamental change in how humans relate to each other and to nature. The authors propose…

  14. Exploring the relationship between nature sounds, connectedness to nature, mood and willingness to buy sustainable food: A retail field experiment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spendrup, Sara; Hunter, Erik; Isgren, Ellinor

    2016-05-01

    Nature sounds are increasingly used by some food retailers to enhance in-store ambiance and potentially even influence sustainable food choices. An in-store, 2 × 3 between-subject full factorial experiment conducted on 627 customers over 12 days tested whether nature sound directly and indirectly influenced willingness to buy (WTB) sustainable foods. The results show that nature sounds positively and directly influence WTB organic foods in groups of customers (men) that have relatively low initial intentions to buy. Indirectly, we did not find support for the effect of nature sound on influencing mood or connectedness to nature (CtN). However, we show that information on the product's sustainability characteristics moderates the relationship between CtN and WTB in certain groups. Namely, when CtN is high, sustainability information positively moderated WTB both organic and climate friendly foods in men. Conversely, when CtN was low, men expressed lower WTB organic and climate friendly foods than identical, albeit conventionally labelled products. Consequently, our study concludes that nature sounds might be an effective, yet subtle in-store tool to use on groups of consumers who might otherwise respond negatively to more overt forms of sustainable food information. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. The Carbon Cycle: Teaching Youth about Natural Resource Sustainability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warren, William A.

    2015-01-01

    The carbon cycle was used as a conceptual construct for organizing the curriculum for a youth summer camp on natural resource use and sustainability. Several studies have indicated the importance of non-traditional youth education settings for science education and understanding responsible natural resource use. The Sixth Grade Forestry Tour, a…

  16. Natural Resources Management for Sustainable Food Security in ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Natural Resources Management for Sustainable Food Security in the Sahel ... as well as strategies for managing the resource base with a view to improving food security. ... InnoVet-AMR grants to support development of innovative veterinary ...

  17. Natural Resources, Multinational Enterprises and Sustainable Development

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shapiro, Daniel; Hobdari, Bersant; Oh, Chang Hoon

    2018-01-01

    The natural resources sectors have not been prominent in the recent international business (IB) or management literature. We argue that the natural resources sectors, if not unique, are certainly characterized by a set of features that make them different, and raise issues that are central...... to international business. We identify two broad areas: the theory of FDI and the MNE, and the link between MNEs and sustainable development. We survey the relevant literature, much of it from outside IB, and identify a rich menu of research opportunities for IB scholars, many of which are addressed in the papers...

  18. Underestimating nearby nature: affective forecasting errors obscure the happy path to sustainability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nisbet, Elizabeth K; Zelenski, John M

    2011-09-01

    Modern lifestyles disconnect people from nature, and this may have adverse consequences for the well-being of both humans and the environment. In two experiments, we found that although outdoor walks in nearby nature made participants much happier than indoor walks did, participants made affective forecasting errors, such that they systematically underestimated nature's hedonic benefit. The pleasant moods experienced on outdoor nature walks facilitated a subjective sense of connection with nature, a construct strongly linked with concern for the environment and environmentally sustainable behavior. To the extent that affective forecasts determine choices, our findings suggest that people fail to maximize their time in nearby nature and thus miss opportunities to increase their happiness and relatedness to nature. Our findings suggest a happy path to sustainability, whereby contact with nature fosters individual happiness and environmentally responsible behavior.

  19. Food Sustainable Model Development: An ANP Approach to Prioritize Sustainable Factors in the Romanian Natural Soft Drinks Industry Context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Răzvan Cătalin Dobrea

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The latest developments in natural soft drinks in the Romanian market signal significant changes in consumers’ perceptions of the sustainability concept. While the necessity of preserving natural resources and ensuring a decent level of healthiness seem to be steadily embraced by the Romanian society, the lack of long enough time series to acknowledge this shift render impossible a traditional econometric validation of these recent trends in economic thinking. The large number of European-funded projects for upgrading technology in the Romanian sector of natural soft drinks raises the question whether the learning by doing effect dispersed into the Romanian managers’ investment decision making from the perspective of both economic and food sustainability. This paper presents the construction and the evaluation of an Analytical Network Process (ANP market share model, which emerged from extended in-depth interviews with 10 managers of the main Romanian natural soft drinks producers. This model differs from traditional market share ANP ones since concepts like either food of economic sustainability were considered as significant driving factors. The coincidence between the estimated market share and the actual one, expressed by Saaty’s compatibility index, validate this model and offer comparative numerical weights’ of importance for food or economic sustainability.

  20. The sustainable management of a productive natural capital

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Daubanes, Julien Xavier

    is relevant, among other examples, to the case of naturebased tourism. I study the sustainable management of a productive natural capital: the conditions under which its exploitation generates maximum long-run social benefits; the various ways in which a regulator can implement such an exploitation; the rent...

  1. Restoration of natural capital: a key strategy on the path to sustainability

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Blignaut, J.N.; Aronson, J.; Groot, de R.S.

    2014-01-01

    Three intertwining braids or strategies to enable transition towards sustainability can be identified, namely: (i) appropriate sustainable technologies, (ii) revising behaviour including reproduction and consumption patterns, and (iii) investment in the restoration of natural capital (RNC). Less

  2. Sustainability and public access to nature: Contesting the right to roam

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daniel R. Williams

    2001-01-01

    This paper discusses the importance of cultural and institutional differences in rights of access to nature for sustainable tourism management. Drawing on the insights from the papers contained in this issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, this introduction highlights two overarching themes. The first is the ambiguous/problematic role of science...

  3. Development of sustainable tourism in the case of nature park Karwendel, Austria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gradinac Oliver

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The concept of sustainable tourism development is set so as to satisfy the present needs of tourists, so that their impact on nature is minimized, so that future generations can satisfy their travel needs in natural preserved areas. Sustainable development is the most complex concept that can be applied to tourism. Due to its complexity, it is not possible to determine precisely the definition of sustainable development, but it can be understood as a continuous process of achieving a balanced economic, environmental and social objectives. Likewise, sustainable tourism is a goal we should strive constantly. Tourism in protected areas should be organized so as to reveal their hidden values to visitors, and that doing so does not violate the peace and harmony of the ecosystem, monuments of material culture and way of life of local communities. The aim of this study is to contribute, through experience in sustainable development of tourism in the nature park Karwendel, to establishing of a model of development of tourism in protected areas with the participation of all stakeholders. The model of ecotourism development should lead tobalance of all components of the tourism product (attractive resources, infrastructure, equipment, organization, activities and experiences. We used an analytical and synthetic methods, qualitative case study, and missing data were collected through interviews.

  4. VISITOR PERCEPTIONS OF THE ROLE OF TOUR GUIDES IN NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

    OpenAIRE

    Ozlem Koroglu; Ozlem Guzel

    2013-01-01

    Undoubtedly, development of sustainable tourism activities is closely related to the protection of natural resources. Protection of natural resources is an important issue that should be taken seriously by the communities. Natural resource management includes sharing all the necessary responsibility for the purpose of protecting natural resources, ensuring the sustainability and leaving it to the next generation. This paper aims to explore the visitor perceptions of tour guides to contribute ...

  5. Community knowledge and sustainable natural resources management: learning from the Monpa of Arunachal Pradesh

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ranjay K. Singh

    2006-04-01

    Full Text Available Community knowledge and local institutions play a significant role in sustainable comanagement, use and conservation of natural resources. Looking to the importance of these resources, a project, funded by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF, Ahmedabad, India was implemented to document the community knowledge associated with agriculture and natural resources in few selected Monpa tribe dominating villages of West Kameng and Tawang Districts of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Dynamics of various indigenous practices, gender role, culture and informal rural social institutions, cultural edges significantly contribute in managing and using the natural resources sustainably. Experiential learning and location specific knowledge play a pivotal role in ecosystem sustainability. Study also indicates the synergistic relation existing between local knowledge and ecological edges, thereby helping in sustaining livelihood in high altitude. Indigenous resource management systems are not mere traditions but adaptive responses that have evolved over time.

  6. Natural Resources Management and Food Security in the Context of Sustainable Development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    John, H.

    2011-01-01

    This paper elaborates on the inseparable link between sustain ability of natural resources and food security. A strategic framework that envisages conservation, improvement and sustainable uses of natural resources is proposed which meets the essential requirements for food security. Sustainability has traditionally been accepted as encompassing three dimensions, namely environment, economics and society but it is necessary to widen this approach for a more complete understanding of this term. Environmental degradation curtails ecosystem services, leading to impoverishment of vulnerable communities and insecurity. Food, whether derived from land or sea, is a product of complex environmental linkages, and biodiversity has a pivotal role to play in producing it. Technology, production methods and management requirements are different for food derived from land and sea, but essentially all foodstuffs utilize environmental resources whose sustain ability is crucial for food security. This analysis necessitates consideration of the basic concepts of sustainable development and food security, the strength of the link between these and differences in the patterns of sustainable management of agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture. The growing role of genetically engineered organisms has been included because of the immense possibilities these offer for maximizing food production despite the environmental and ethical concerns raised. (author)

  7. Sustainability Learning in Natural Resource Use and Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. David Tàbara

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available We contribute to the normative discussion on sustainability learning and provide a theoretical integrative framework intended to underlie the main components and interrelations of what learning is required for social learning to become sustainability learning. We demonstrate how this framework has been operationalized in a participatory modeling interface to support processes of natural resource integrated assessment and management. The key modeling components of our view are: structure (S, energy and resources (E, information and knowledge (I, social-ecological change (C, and the size, thresholds, and connections of different social-ecological systems. Our approach attempts to overcome many of the cultural dualisms that exist in the way social and ecological systems are perceived and affect many of the most common definitions of sustainability. Our approach also emphasizes the issue of limits within a total social-ecological system and takes a multiscale, agent-based perspective. Sustainability learning is different from social learning insofar as not all of the outcomes of social learning processes necessarily improve what we consider as essential for the long-term sustainability of social-ecological systems, namely, the co-adaptive systemic capacity of agents to anticipate and deal with the unintended, undesired, and irreversible negative effects of development. Hence, the main difference of sustainability learning from social learning is the content of what is learned and the criteria used to assess such content; these are necessarily related to increasing the capacity of agents to manage, in an integrative and organic way, the total social-ecological system of which they form a part. The concept of sustainability learning and the SEIC social-ecological framework can be useful to assess and communicate the effectiveness of multiple agents to halt or reverse the destructive trends affecting the life-support systems upon which all humans

  8. Effect of Mulligan's and Kinesio knee taping on adolescent ballet dancers knee and hip biomechanics during landing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hendry, D; Campbell, A; Ng, L; Grisbrook, T L; Hopper, D M

    2015-12-01

    Taping is often used to manage the high rate of knee injuries in ballet dancers; however, little is known about the effect of taping on lower-limb biomechanics during ballet landings in the turnout position. This study investigated the effects of Kinesiotape (KT), Mulligan's tape (MT) and no tape (NT) on knee and hip kinetics during landing in three turnout positions. The effect of taping on the esthetic execution of ballet jumps was also assessed. Eighteen pain-free 12-15-year-old female ballet dancers performed ballet jumps in three turnout positions, under the three knee taping conditions. A Vicon Motion Analysis system (Vicon Oxford, Oxford, UK) and Advanced Mechanical Technology, Inc. (Watertown, Massa chusetts, USA) force plate collected lower-limb mechanics. The results demonstrated that MT significantly reduced peak posterior knee shear forces (P = 0.025) and peak posterior (P = 0.005), medial (P = 0.022) and lateral (P = 0.014) hip shear forces compared with NT when landing in first position. KT had no effect on knee or hip forces. No significant differences existed between taping conditions in all landing positions for the esthetic measures. MT was able to reduce knee and the hip forces without affecting the esthetic performance of ballet jumps, which may have implications for preventing and managing knee injuries in ballet dancers. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  9. Natural Capital Management: An Evolutionary Paradigm for Sustainable Restoration Investment - 13455

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koetz, Maureen T.

    2013-01-01

    Unlike other forms of capital assets (built infrastructure, labor, financial capital), the supply of usable or accessible air, land, and water elements (termed Natural Capital Assets or NCA) available to enterprise processes is structurally shrinking due to increased demand and regulatory restriction. This supply/demand imbalance is affecting all forms of public and private enterprise (including Federal Facilities) in the form of encroachment, production limits, cost increases, and reduced competitiveness. Department of Energy (DOE) sites are comprised of significant stocks of NCA that function as both conserved capital (providing ecosystem services and other reserve capacity), and as natural infrastructure (supporting major Federal enterprise programs). The current rubric of 'Environmental Stewardship' provides an unduly constrained management paradigm that is focused largely on compliance process metrics, and lacks a value platform for quantifying, documenting, and sustainably re-deploying re-capitalized natural asset capacity and capability. By adopting value-based system concepts similar to built infrastructure accounting and information management, 'stewarded' natural assets relegated to liability- or compliance-focused outcomes become 're-capitalized' operational assets able to support new or expanded mission. This growing need for new accounting and management paradigms to capture natural capital value is achieving global recognition, most recently by the United Nations, world leaders, and international corporations at the Rio+20 Summit in June of 2012. Natural Capital Asset Management (NCAM) TM is such an accounting framework tool. Using a quantification-based design, NCAM TM provides inventory, capacity and value data to owners or managers of natural assets such as the DOE that parallel comparable information systems currently used for facility assets. Applied to Environmental Management (EM) and other DOE program activities, the natural asset capacity and

  10. Natural Capital Management: An Evolutionary Paradigm for Sustainable Restoration Investment - 13455

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Koetz, Maureen T. [Koetz and Duncan LLC, Suite 30J, 355 South End Avenue, New York, NY 10280 (United States)

    2013-07-01

    Unlike other forms of capital assets (built infrastructure, labor, financial capital), the supply of usable or accessible air, land, and water elements (termed Natural Capital Assets or NCA) available to enterprise processes is structurally shrinking due to increased demand and regulatory restriction. This supply/demand imbalance is affecting all forms of public and private enterprise (including Federal Facilities) in the form of encroachment, production limits, cost increases, and reduced competitiveness. Department of Energy (DOE) sites are comprised of significant stocks of NCA that function as both conserved capital (providing ecosystem services and other reserve capacity), and as natural infrastructure (supporting major Federal enterprise programs). The current rubric of 'Environmental Stewardship' provides an unduly constrained management paradigm that is focused largely on compliance process metrics, and lacks a value platform for quantifying, documenting, and sustainably re-deploying re-capitalized natural asset capacity and capability. By adopting value-based system concepts similar to built infrastructure accounting and information management, 'stewarded' natural assets relegated to liability- or compliance-focused outcomes become 're-capitalized' operational assets able to support new or expanded mission. This growing need for new accounting and management paradigms to capture natural capital value is achieving global recognition, most recently by the United Nations, world leaders, and international corporations at the Rio+20 Summit in June of 2012. Natural Capital Asset Management (NCAM){sup TM} is such an accounting framework tool. Using a quantification-based design, NCAM{sup TM} provides inventory, capacity and value data to owners or managers of natural assets such as the DOE that parallel comparable information systems currently used for facility assets. Applied to Environmental Management (EM) and other DOE program

  11. Theoretical and substantive concept of sustainable close-to-nature managed progress

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dušan Plut

    2005-12-01

    Full Text Available Implementation of the principles of sustainability in the economic, social and environmental field means that organisation and (material operation of a society is permanently adapted to the environment. Sustainable close-to-naturemanaged development, or in a broader sense progress, means permanent (sustainable and simultaneous improvement of material, social and environmental quality of life, thus a permanent raise of the welfare in its broader sense of all inhabitants within the capacities (limitations of the environment. The opportunity of geography is to take an active part in the realisation of close-to-nature managed patterns of the spatial organisation of human activity.

  12. Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program(SANREM CRSP)

    OpenAIRE

    Moore, Keith M.

    2007-01-01

    This presentation describes the history and current program of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP). SANREM Objectives include increasing stakeholder income generation capacity, empowering stakeholders, particularly women, enhancing decentralized resource management, strengthening local institutions, improving market access for smallholders and communities, and promoting sustainable and environmentally sound developme...

  13. Natural resources and environmentally sound sustainable development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pastizzi-Ferencic, D.

    1992-01-01

    This article summarizes the activities of the United Nations Department of Technical Co-operation for Development (UNDTCD), which has been active for over 40 years in assisting developing countries to make the fullest possible use of their natural resources. Energy, water and mineral resources must be developed, and the impacts of the development on the environment must be mitigated. The importance of protecting supplies of fresh water, the central part occupied by the mining industry in developing countries, and the proper role of energy sources for sustainable development are all discussed

  14. The effect of natural resources on a sustainable development policy: The approach of non-sustainable externalities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schilling, Markus; Chiang Lichun

    2011-01-01

    The debate about the importance of non-renewable resources for economic development between optimists and pessimists shows that the extensive depletion of non-renewable resources, particularly oil, along with a higher level of consumption could have a significant impact on the economic development of future generations. Based on this debate, this paper proposes criteria under which the depletion of non-renewable resources would create excess costs for future generations. Therefore, this paper aims to answer the question 'What will be the impact of the depletion of non-renewable resources on sustainable economic development?' Accordingly, a sustainable development policy appears feasible by minimizing non-sustainable externalities which derive from future externalities that weigh the benefits from a previous employment of natural resources. The research based on qualitative analysis clarifies the reasons for and the extents of taking sustainability into account as well as points to difficulties of implementing policies to time the transition towards a sustainable economic development. Finally, the research shows the implications of this approach for environmental degradation, the depletion of non-renewable resources and energy production. - Research Highlights: →Economic development will more or less smoothly switch to the use of renewable substitutes. →The transition towards a sustainable use of resources may inherit costs for future generations. →Non-sustainable externalities show the future costs of excessive resource depletion. →The approach aims to take the long-term global effects of resource substitution into account.

  15. Making the Most of World Natural Heritage—Linking Conservation and Sustainable Regional Development?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katharina Conradin

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Today, more than 1000 World Heritage (WH sites are inscribed on UNESCO’s list, 228 of which are natural and mixed heritage sites. Once focused primarily on conservation, World Natural Heritage (WNH sites are increasingly seen as promoters of sustainable regional development. Sustainability-oriented regions, it is assumed, are safeguards for conservation and positively influence local conservation goals. Within UNESCO, discussions regarding the integration of sustainable development in official policies have recently gained momentum. In this article, we investigate the extent to which WNH sites trigger sustainability-oriented approaches in surrounding regions, and how such approaches in turn influence the WNH site and its protection. The results of the study are on the one hand based on a global survey with more than 60% of the WNH sites listed in 2011, and on the other hand on a complementary literature research. Furthermore, we analyze the policy framework necessary to support WNH sites in this endeavor. We conclude that a regional approach to WNH management is necessary to ensure that WNH sites support sustainable regional development effectively, but that the core focus of WNH status must remain environmental conservation.

  16. Fostering sustainable operations in a natural resource management agency: insights from the field

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patricia L. Winter; Shawn M. Burn

    2010-01-01

    Sustainable operations (SO; operating in an environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable manner) is consistent with the environmental stewardship mission of natural resource management organizations. This study sought to examine SO practices in the daily work lives of US Forest Service employees, including those primarily stationed in the office and in the...

  17. Nature's role in sustaining economic development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dasgupta, Partha

    2010-01-12

    In this paper, I formalize the idea of sustainable development in terms of intergenerational well-being. I then sketch an argument that has recently been put forward formally to demonstrate that intergenerational well-being increases over time if and only if a comprehensive measure of wealth per capita increases. The measure of wealth includes not only manufactured capital, knowledge and human capital (education and health), but also natural capital (e.g. ecosystems). I show that a country's comprehensive wealth per capita can decline even while gross domestic product (GDP) per capita increases and the UN Human Development Index records an improvement. I then use some rough and ready data from the world's poorest countries and regions to show that during the period 1970-2000 wealth per capita declined in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, even though the Human Development Index (HDI) showed an improvement everywhere and GDP per capita increased in all places (except in sub-Saharan Africa, where there was a slight decline). I conclude that, as none of the development indicators currently in use is able to reveal whether development has been, or is expected to be, sustainable, national statistical offices and international organizations should now routinely estimate the (comprehensive) wealth of nations.

  18. No-Self, Natural Sustainability and Education for Sustainable Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Chia-Ling

    2017-01-01

    This article explores the significance of sustainability and several ways in which education for sustainable development (ESD) can be considered. It presents several issues related to the theories of sustainability and ESD, which are generated based on a firm concept of anthropocentrism. ESD has been used for developing a scientific understanding…

  19. System for Conservation of Specially Protected Natural Areas as Sustainable Urban Development Element

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kryakhtunov, A.; Pelymskaya, O.; Chernykh, E.

    2017-11-01

    The article is devoted to the problem of the conservation of specially protected natural territories. The research topic is especially interesting for urban areas that provide sustainable urban development. The authors consider the main aspects of the sustainable settlement development and substantiate the direct dependence of the evolution of territories in the implementation of urban development activities with the ecological framework of a city. The object of the study is a specially protected natural area located in Western Siberia in the city of Tyumen, the Tyumen region. As a result of the analysis, the main problems of preservation of the nature monument of regional importance were revealed as well as a set of measures and management decisions regarding the conservation of the forest park.

  20. The Contribution of Wildlife to Sustainable Natural Resource Utilization in Namibia: A Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diana L. van Schalkwyk

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, but well known for its richness in species and sustainable natural resource utilization. The Namibian farming sector consists mainly of extensive farming systems. Cattle production contributes 54% of the livestock sector’s production output, followed by sheep and goats (25%, hides and skins (9%, and other forms of agricultural production (12%. Namibia’s freehold farmers have obtained ownership rights over land and livestock since the early 1900s; commercial rights over wildlife and plants were given to freehold farmers in 1967 and to communal farmers in 1996. Natural resource-based production systems then overtook agricultural production systems and exceeded it by a factor of at least two. The shift from practicing conservation to sustainable utilization of natural resources contributed to the rapid growth of wildlife utilization. The wildlife industry in Namibia is currently the only animal production system that is expanding. There are in total at least two million head of different wildlife species. The broader impact of the utilization of wildlife on the economy is estimated to be around N$ 1.3 billion. Tourism, live sales and trophy hunting, cannot sustain further growth. Wildlife farming could offer better opportunities for ensuring long-term sustainability. As the game meat trade in Namibia is not formalized, harvesting wildlife to satisfy the demand for game meat in export markets is still in its infancy. Sustainable harvesting of wildlife for meat production, however, has the potential to increase earnings to the beneficiaries in the wildlife sector.

  1. Mimicking natural ecosystems to develop sustainable supply chains : A theory of socio-ecological intergradation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gruner, Richard L.; Power, Damien

    2017-01-01

    For most firms, the development of sustainable supply chain practices remains challenging. Using a theory-building approach, we develop a theory of socio-ecological intergradation to provide managers with guidance in mimicking natural ecosystems to develop more local and thus sustainable supply

  2. Evaluating the level and nature of sustainable development for a geothermal power plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Phillips, Jason

    2010-01-01

    The paper provides for an evaluation of the potential level and nature of sustainable development of the Sabalan geothermal power plant in NW Iran, to be operational in 2011. The paper achieves this by applying a mathematical model of sustainable development developed by the author (re: Phillips), in respect to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) conducted by Yousefi et al. using the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM) methodology (re: Pastakia; Pastakia and Jensen). Using a model application methodology developed for the RIAM, the results indicated that the nature of sustainable development for Sabalan was considered to be very weak (S = 0.063). This was due to the imbalance between negative environmental impacts and positive socio-economic impacts deriving from the project. Further, when placed into context with a similar set of results obtained from the EIA of the Tuzla geothermal power plant by Baba also using the RIAM methodology, then the similarities between the results obtained raises some legimate questions as to the sustainable development credentials of geothermal power production. (author)

  3. Energy companies in the Netherlands work on sustainable use of natural gas. Manifesto

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ten Berge, J.B.M.; Boersma, M.A.M.; Dijkgraaf, H.G.; Platenkamp, R.J.

    2004-01-01

    This manifesto concerns the vision of several Dutch energy companies with regard to sustainable use of natural gas in the Netherlands. The aim is to realize innovations in the field of efficient supply of natural gas, improving the efficiency of gas appliances, use of natural gas in transportation, development of 'virtual power plants', and experimental applications for 'green' gas and hydrogen [nl

  4. Threats of natural character, factors affecting sustainable development of territories and their prevention

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guskova N.D.

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available XXI century is characterized by globalization of socio-economic processes, economic growth, and excessive consumption of natural resources that leads to imbalance in socio-economic systems. Significant threats to the sustainable development of territories are natural and anthropogenic disasters, the extent and severity of which significantly increased in recent decades. They do great damage to economy and environment, often accompanied by loss of human lives. Russia with its broad territory, significant difference in climate conditions, is exposed to the wide range of natural hazards and disasters. The most dangerous are earthquakes, floods, forest fires. About 20 % of the Russian Federation is situated in zones of high risk, which are inhabited by more than 20 million people. Area of flooding as a result of floods can reach over 400 km2. Annually in the forests appear from 100 to 300 thousand of fires on the total area of 1.5 - 2.5 million hectares. The impact of natural disasters on the sustainable development of territory is considered in the article as an example of one of the Russian regions - the Republic of Mordovia. It was analyzed the dynamics of emergencies for the period of 2000 - 2012 years, paid attention to natural emergencies (forest fires and floods. Despite the fact that occurrence of emergency and catastrophic situations of natural character happens spontaneously, size of damage they do largely determined by timeliness and accuracy of the prediction and adoption of adequate preventive measures. In this regard, the article provides recommendations to reduce threats of natural character for the sustainable development of the Republic of Mordovia. They cover a range of activities on monitoring of natural phenomena, protection of the population from emergency situations to minimize potential damage, training of population in the face of natural disasters, development of economic policy in the region and training of personnel in the

  5. Problems of Sustainable Tourism Development in Strandzha Nature Park

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mariana ASSENOVA

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Strandzha Nature Park is the largest protected natural area in Bulgaria, established to preserve unique ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as the cultural heritage of the mountain. Strandzha Mountain is entirely on Bulgarian territory, being included in the five priority conservation areas in Central and Eastern Europe. It is situated on the second largest migratory path of birds in Europe - Via Pontica. The total number of species habitats is 121 and in this indicator the park is foremost among the protected areas in Europe.During the last 15 years, many people in the area started to look for alternative sources of income and at present there are hundreds of tourism establishments that offer accommodation, food and sightseeing in the area. A regional trade mark has been developed and launched to distinguish those accommodation providers and other tourism services suppliers that cover certain requirements for sustainability, developed in a system of principles and concrete criteria, based on the concept of sustainable tourism development. The current status of tourism development in the park includes tourism supply and tourism demand, the potential and carrying capacity of resources, and some data on resource efficiency. Problems discussed are those of territorial development conflicts in territorial planning and management.

  6. Sustainability, natural and organic cosmetics: consumer, products, efficacy, toxicological and regulatory considerations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bruno Fonseca-Santos

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The interest in sustainable products has increased along the years, since the choice of products, packaging and production processes have a great impact on the environment. These products are classified by regulatory agencies in different categories, aggregating advantages to the product and increasing the demand by consumers. However, there is no harmonization in guidelines of these certifying agencies and each cosmetic industry formulates their product and packaging in a more rational way, which causes less damage to the environment. Many cosmetic products have in their formulation natural products that perform a specific biological function, but these products should be evaluated on efficacy and toxicological aspects. The aim of this article is to approach sustainability, natural and organic cosmetics, considering the consumer and the efficacy, toxicological and regulatory aspects.

  7. Theory and Practice in Nature Conservation - Where to Seek Sustainability?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mirek, Zbigniew; Witkowski, Zbigniew

    2017-12-01

    Contemporary nature conservation is the subject of serious disputes, with biocentrists emphasising the superiority of the good of nature, while anthropocentrists believe that conservation space should also take account of the good of humankind. The dispute concerns two very important values perceived differently, and not resolvable within any scientifi c framework. The authors postulate a return to the Christian roots of our civilisation. It was God who gave human beings the goods He had created, expecting them to be used in line with His plan. The man who lost God's plan, destroys the life of nature as well as his own. The postulated solution is the proper shaping of conscience, to condition biodiversity conservation in line with the idea of sustainable development.

  8. Fish Distribution in Far Western Queensland, Australia: The Importance of Habitat, Connectivity and Natural Flows

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adam Kerezsy

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available The endorheic Lake Eyre Basin drains 1.2 million square kilometres of arid central Australia, yet provides habitat for only 30 species of freshwater fish due to the scarcity of water and extreme climate. The majority are hardy riverine species that are adapted to the unpredictable flow regimes, and capable of massive population booms following heavy rainfall and the restoration of connectivity between isolated waterholes. The remainder are endemic specialists from isolated springs with very restricted ranges, and many are listed under relevant state and national endangered species legislation and also by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN. For these spring communities, which are sustained by water from the Great Artesian Basin, survival is contingent on suitable habitat persisting alongside extractive mining, agriculture and the imposition of alien species. For the riverine species, which frequently undertake long migrations into ephemeral systems, preservation of the natural flow regime is paramount, as this reinstates riverine connectivity. In this study, fish were sampled from the Bulloo River in the east to the Mulligan River in the west, along a temporal timeframe and using a standard set of sampling gears. Fish presence was influenced by factors such as natural catchment divides, sampling time, ephemerality and the occurrence of connection flows and flooding. Despite the comparatively low diversity of species, the aquatic systems of this isolated region remain in good ecological condition, and as such they offer excellent opportunities to investigate the ecology of arid water systems. However, the presence of both endangered species (in the springs and invasive and translocated species more widely indicates that active protection and management of this unique area is essential to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem integrity.

  9. Sustainable management of natural forests in pantanal region, Brazil.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patricia Póvoa de Mattos

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available The Pantanal region in Brazil has an area of 140,000 km², with approximately 30 % of natural forests distributed as deciduous, semideciduous, and forested savannas. The subregion of Nhecolandia represents 19 % of this area. There is constant concern about the sustainability of these forested areas, as there is a constant demand for wood for farm maintenance, mainly for making fence poles. The objective of this article is to indicate sustainable forest management practices in the Pantanal region of Nhecolandia. The methodology of this novel approach consisted of the recovery and organization of the available information to calculate the sustainable allowable cut per hectare, considering: cutting cycle, wood stock, periodic annual increment (PAI in percentage of volume from the commercial or interesting species and the stand structure. For forested savannas, the diameter at breast height (DBH of 529 trees per hectare were estimated as follows: 28 % with a DBH lower than 10 cm, 36 % from 10 to 20 cm, 21 % from 20 to 30 cm, 10 % from 30 to 40 cm and only 4 % greater than 40 cm. The estimated total volume per hectare was 84.2 m³ and the estimated basal area was 18.6 m². The forested areas of the Pantanal region present potential for sustainable use. However, due to regional characteristics and the lack of available information, an enhancement in research is recommended to establish a basic management guide to ensure its perpetuation for future generations.

  10. Sustainable Capital? The Neoliberalization of Nature and Knowledge in the European “Knowledge-based Bio-economy”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Theo Papaioannou

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available As an EU policy agenda, the “knowledge-based bio-economy” (KBBE emphasizes bio-technoscience as the means to reconcile environmental and economic sustainability. This frames the sustainability problem as an inefficiency to be overcome through a techno-knowledge fix. Here ecological sustainability means a benign eco-efficient productivity using resources which are renewable, reproducible and therefore sustainable. The KBBE narrative has been elaborated by European Technology Platforms in the agri-food-forestry-biofuels sectors, whose proposals shape research priorities. These inform policy agendas for the neoliberalization of both nature and knowledge, especially through intellectual property. In these ways, the KBBE can be understood as a new political-economic strategy for sustainable capital. This strategy invests great expectations for unlocking the productive potential of natural resources through a techno-knowledge fix. Although eco-efficiency is sometimes equated with biological productivity, commercial success will be dependent upon new combinations of “living” and “dead” labour.

  11. Sustainability of natural attenuation of nitrate in agricultural aquifers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Green, Christopher T.; Bekins, Barbara A.

    2010-01-01

    Increased concentrations of nitrate in groundwater in agricultural areas, coinciding with increased use of chemical and organic fertilizers, have raised concern because of risks to environmental and human health. At some sites, these problems are mitigated by natural attenuation of nitrate as a result of microbially mediated reactions. Results from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research under the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program show that reactions of dissolved nitrate with solid aquifer minerals and organic carbon help lower nitrate concentrations in groundwater beneath agricultural fields. However, increased fluxes of nitrate cause ongoing depletion of the finite pool of solid reactants. Consumption of the solid reactants diminishes the capacity of the aquifer to remove nitrate, calling into question the long-term sustainability of these natural attenuation processes.

  12. Sustainable development: challenges and opportunities for the natural sciences (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mutter, J. C.; Fishman, R.; Anttila-Hughes, J. K.; Hsiang, S. M.

    2009-12-01

    The challenges of sustainable development -- equitably improving global human welfare while ensuring that the environment is preserved for future generations - demand research at the nexus of the social and natural sciences. Massive and inevitable changes in climate, ecosystem functions, and human interaction with the environment will perturb societies throughout the world in different ways over the coming century. The changes faced by poor societies and their ability to cope differs markedly from those that face the richest. Yet in all regions the dynamic interaction of social and natural drivers will govern the prospects for human welfare and its improvement. Developing an understanding of these phenomena will require field research together with analytical and modeling capabilities that couple physical and social phenomena, allowing feedback between the two to manifest and permit forecasting over long time scales. Heterogeneous income and population growth further complicate this need through their consequences for food security, migration, resource allocation, and conflict. In this contribution, we identify some key concepts of sustainable development, open research questions and outline how scientific research might engage this emerging discipline. Using recent examples of interaction, we discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the further development of this dialogue.

  13. Sustainable Water Management in Urban, Agricultural, and Natural Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tess Russo

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Sustainable water management (SWM requires allocating between competing water sector demands, and balancing the financial and social resources required to support necessary water systems. The objective of this review is to assess SWM in three sectors: urban, agricultural, and natural systems. This review explores the following questions: (1 How is SWM defined and evaluated? (2 What are the challenges associated with sustainable development in each sector? (3 What are the areas of greatest potential improvement in urban and agricultural water management systems? And (4 What role does country development status have in SWM practices? The methods for evaluating water management practices range from relatively simple indicator methods to integration of multiple models, depending on the complexity of the problem and resources of the investigators. The two key findings and recommendations for meeting SWM objectives are: (1 all forms of water must be considered usable, and reusable, water resources; and (2 increasing agricultural crop water production represents the largest opportunity for reducing total water consumption, and will be required to meet global food security needs. The level of regional development should not dictate sustainability objectives, however local infrastructure conditions and financial capabilities should inform the details of water system design and evaluation.

  14. Mathematical Physics Framework SustainingNatural Anticipation and Selection of Attention

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alfons Salden

    2005-04-01

    Full Text Available An ambient intelligent environment is definitely a prerequisite for anticipating the needs and catching the attention of systems. But how to endow such an environment with natural anticipatory and attentive features is still a hardly ever properly addressed question. Before providing a roadmap towards such an ambient intelligent environment we first give cognitive-ergonomic accounts for how natural anticipation and selection of attention (NASA emerge in living organisms. In particular, we describe why, when and how exploratory and goal-directed acts by living organisms are controlled while optimizing their changing and limited structural and functional capabilities of multimodal sensor, cognitive and actuator systems. Next, we describe how NASA can be embedded and embodied in sustainable intelligent multimodal systems (SIMS. Such systems allow an ambient intelligent environment to (self- interact taking its contexts into account. In addition, collective intelligent agents (CIA distribute, store, extend, maintain, optimize, diversify and sustain the NASA embedded and embodied in the ambient intelligent environment. Finally, we present the basic ingredients of a mathematical-physical framework for empirically modeling and sustaining NASA within SIMS by CIA in an ambient intelligent environment. An environment which is modeled this way, robustly and reliably over time aligns multi-sensor detection and fusion; multimodal fusion, dialogue planning and fission; multi actuator fission, rendering and presentation schemes. NASA residing in such an environment are then active within every phase of perception-decision-action cycles, and are gauged and renormalized to its physics. After determining and assessing across several evolutionary dynamic scales appropriate fitness, utility and measures, NASA can be realized by reinforcement learning and self-organization.

  15. Campus sustainability and natural area stewardship: student involvement in adaptive comanagement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marianne E. Krasny

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available University campus sustainability initiatives have proliferated over the last decade. We contend that such initiatives benefit from applying conceptual frameworks to help understand and guide their activities and from a focus on campus open space and natural areas management. Informed by an adaptive comanagement framework encompassing social learning, social capital, and shared action, we used semistructured interviews to examine student participation in the immediate response and longer-term policy formulation following a crisis that occurred in a campus natural area. Students exhibited social learning as demonstrated by reflection and the integration of new ideas through discussions with administrators and peers, as well as social capital through increased social trust, which led to a shift in perspective regarding norms of student-administrator interactions. Further, students participated in shared action, such as posting warning signs in dangerous areas, and importantly, through their contributions to longer-term campus natural area safety and recreational access policy. Three conditions explain student engagement in the adaptive comanagement process: the presence of a pre-existing student organization that had built bonding social capital and was committed to campus natural area stewardship, openness to multiple stakeholder viewpoints and commitment to action on the part of the university administration, and the presence of a crisis that spurred emotions and action. Based on these findings, we assert that student organizations can contribute to an adaptive comanagement process and that such a process is consistent with university and campus sustainability values related to the importance of student engagement, mental health, and learning.

  16. Guides to Sustainable Connections? Exploring Human-Nature Relationships among Wilderness Travel Leaders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grimwood, Bryan S. R.; Haberer, Alexa; Legault, Maria

    2015-01-01

    This paper explores and critically interprets the role wilderness travel may play in fostering environmental sustainability. The paper draws upon two qualitative studies that sought to understand human-nature relationships as experienced by different groups of wilderness travel leaders in Canada. According to leaders involved in the studies,…

  17. Management Strategy for Hydroelectric Project Toro 2: Knowing and enhancing natural resources sustainably

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Pereira Chaves

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this article is to understand and sustainably enhance the biological and ecological resources of the Hydroelectric Project of Toro 2, thus; a research was carried out to inventory the presence of birds, mammals and plants, in order to know if the site qualifies as a biological tourist attraction, as well as to know the opinion of local people. It is proposed the sustainable uses of natural resources, through a strategy of use, management and conservation of the ecosystems.

  18. The concern for nature, a natural process for public policy? How to promote sustainable development in urban environmental agendas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María de los Ángeles Barrionuevo Mora

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Ecuador is a leader worldwide for its recognition of the Rights of Nature and the Rights of the City in its Constitution. In so far as Quito, its capital, has positioned itself among the first municipalities that have demonstrated their compliance with the international commitments on climate change, it is a relevant case study. From the experience of this city, we aim to identify the main factors that contribute to local government taking on a sustainability agenda. Although the national and international context influence on the positioning of such topics, such factors as leadership, the influence of international networks, the level of specialization of the bureaucratic apparatus and local regulations have permitted to include issues related to sustainable development in the public policy agenda and thus have given visibility to cities as relevant actors in the pursuit of sustainable development.

  19. Multiscale Methodological Framework to Derive Criteria and Indicators for Sustainability Evaluation of Peasant Natural Resource Management Systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    López Ridaura, S.; Keulen, van H.; Ittersum, van M.K.; Leffelaar, P.A.

    2005-01-01

    Design and implementation of more sustainable natural resource management systems is the current objective of many research institutions, development agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders. But, how to assess whether a system is sustainable? How do we know whether the alternatives designed will

  20. Langkawi's Sustainable Regeneration Strategy and Natural Heritage Preservation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rugayah Hashim

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available In the face of climate change and increased development, environmental acclimatization includes looking for alternatives for socio-economic improvement. For the island resort of Langkawi, Malaysia, agriculture is no longer a sustainable income generating venture. Eco-tourism has taken over paddy planting and artisanal fishing. The state government and local authorities are aware of the need to realign their development strategies to suit the environment. By engaging in sustainable regeneration and leveraging eco-tourism demands, a win-win situation can occur for the locals and the local authorities. However, the continued success of eco-tourism is dependent on the stakeholder's ability to ensure the non-exploitation of the geological parks. This paper provides insights through the qualitative analysis of interviews with the personnel from the Langkawi Development Authority, the District Officer and the Langkawi Municipal Council. The findings indicated that the government's intervention have resulted in better socio-economic well-being through eco-tourism. The praxis of the resort island's adaptation to the changing environment includes good socio-economic policies that are applicable and suitable to the island's core attractions. Lastly, the preservation of the natural assets will promote the green economy, which is in line with the government's Economic Transformation Program (ETP.

  1. Assessing sustainability in nature-inspired design

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    De Pauw, I.C.; Kandachar, P.V.; Karana, E.

    2014-01-01

    In the field of sustainable product development, a new perspective for approaching sustainability has been advocated, challenging designers and engineers to aim beyond ‘reducing unsustainability’. Several design strategies – including Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle – have been suggested for

  2. Sustainable tourism and natural resources management in small islands

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cappucci, Sergio; Morabito, Roberto

    2015-01-01

    The present issue reports the results obtained through the activities dedicated to the Management of Natural Resources of Sicily Eco-innovation Project, focused on sustainable tourism. Both studies and interventions were carried out between 2012 and 2015 in collaboration with the City Council and the Marine Protected Area of Egadi Islands, within the islets of Egadi Archipelago (few kilometres offshore of the Sicilian west coast). The study area is characterised by many ecological and naturalistic assets, particularly in the underwater environment, where a very high biodiversity is present thanks to the location and its particular hydrologic conditions. Here, the seabed has an irregular morphology with many cliffs, outcrops, sand banks and submarine valleys. It is a natural laboratory where the seasonal anthropic pressure is strongly related to tourism, leisure and professional/illegal fishing, pollution related to urbanisation (more intense in the Island of Favignana); all activities highly impacting the marine ecosystem and main threat for biological resources [it

  3. The Geocybernetic Assessment Matrix (GAM) — A new assessment tool for evaluating the level and nature of sustainability or unsustainability

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Phillips, Jason, E-mail: jp1@tiscali.co.uk

    2016-01-15

    Evaluating sustainability from EIA-based assessments has been problematic at best. This is due to the use of reductionist and qualitative approaches which is dependent upon the perspective of the assessor(s). Therefore, a more rigorous and holistic approach is required to evaluate sustainability in a more consistent way. In this paper, a matrix-based methodology in order to assess the indicated level and nature of sustainability for any project, policy, indicators, legislation, regulation, or other framework is described. The Geocybernetic Assessment Matrix (GAM) is designed to evaluate the level and nature of sustainability or unsustainability occurring in respect the fundamental and complex geocybernetic paradigms. The GAM method is described in detail in respect to the theory behind it and the methodology. The GAM is then demonstrated using an appropriate case study — Part 1 of the UK Climate Change Act (2008) concerning carbon budgets and targets. The results indicate that the Part 1 of Act may not achieve the desired goals in contributing towards sustainable development through the stated mechanisms for carbon budgets and targets. The paper then discusses the broader context of the GAM with respect to the core themes evident in the development and application of the GAM of: sustainability science; sustainability assessment; application value of the GAM; and future research and development. - Highlights: • A new assessment tool called the Geocybernetic Assessment Matrix (GAM) described. • GAM evaluates the level and nature of sustainability or unsustainability. • GAM demonstrated by application to Part 1 of the UK Climate Change Act (CCA). • Part 1 of CCA has significant flaws in achieving a sustainable pathway. • GAM offers a potentially useful tool for quantitatively evaluating sustainability.

  4. The Geocybernetic Assessment Matrix (GAM) — A new assessment tool for evaluating the level and nature of sustainability or unsustainability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Phillips, Jason

    2016-01-01

    Evaluating sustainability from EIA-based assessments has been problematic at best. This is due to the use of reductionist and qualitative approaches which is dependent upon the perspective of the assessor(s). Therefore, a more rigorous and holistic approach is required to evaluate sustainability in a more consistent way. In this paper, a matrix-based methodology in order to assess the indicated level and nature of sustainability for any project, policy, indicators, legislation, regulation, or other framework is described. The Geocybernetic Assessment Matrix (GAM) is designed to evaluate the level and nature of sustainability or unsustainability occurring in respect the fundamental and complex geocybernetic paradigms. The GAM method is described in detail in respect to the theory behind it and the methodology. The GAM is then demonstrated using an appropriate case study — Part 1 of the UK Climate Change Act (2008) concerning carbon budgets and targets. The results indicate that the Part 1 of Act may not achieve the desired goals in contributing towards sustainable development through the stated mechanisms for carbon budgets and targets. The paper then discusses the broader context of the GAM with respect to the core themes evident in the development and application of the GAM of: sustainability science; sustainability assessment; application value of the GAM; and future research and development. - Highlights: • A new assessment tool called the Geocybernetic Assessment Matrix (GAM) described. • GAM evaluates the level and nature of sustainability or unsustainability. • GAM demonstrated by application to Part 1 of the UK Climate Change Act (CCA). • Part 1 of CCA has significant flaws in achieving a sustainable pathway. • GAM offers a potentially useful tool for quantitatively evaluating sustainability.

  5. Relative Sustainability of Natural Gas Assisted High-Octane Gasoline Blendstock Production from Biomass

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tan, Eric C [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Zhang, Yi Min [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Cai, Hao [Argonne National Laboratory

    2017-11-01

    Biomass-derived hydrocarbon fuel technologies are being developed and pursued for better economy, environment, and society benefits underpinning the sustainability of transportation energy. Increasing availability and affordability of natural gas (NG) in the US can play an important role in assisting renewable fuel technology development, primarily in terms of economic feasibility. When a biorefinery is co-processing NG with biomass, the current low cost of NG coupled with the higher NG carbon conversion efficiency potentially allow for cost competitiveness of the fuel while achieving a minimum GHG emission reduction of 50 percent or higher compared to petroleum fuel. This study evaluates the relative sustainability of the production of high-octane gasoline blendstock via indirect liquefaction (IDL) of biomass (and with NG co-feed) through methanol/dimethyl ether intermediates. The sustainability metrics considered in this study include minimum fuel selling price (MFSP), carbon conversion efficiency, life cycle GHG emissions, life cycle water consumption, fossil energy return on investment (EROI), GHG emission avoidance cost, and job creation. Co-processing NG can evidently improve the MFSP. Evaluation of the relative sustainability can shed light on the biomass-NG synergistic impacts and sustainability trade-offs associated with the IDL as high-octane gasoline blendstock production.

  6. Green and Sustainable Separation of Natural Products from Agro-Industrial Waste: Challenges, Potentialities, and Perspectives on Emerging Approaches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zuin, Vânia G; Ramin, Luize Z

    2018-01-17

    New generations of biorefinery combine innovative biomass waste resources from different origins, chemical extraction and/or synthesis of biomaterials, biofuels, and bioenergy via green and sustainable processes. From the very beginning, identifying and evaluating all potentially high value-added chemicals that could be removed from available renewable feedstocks requires robust, efficient, selective, reproducible, and benign analytical approaches. With this in mind, green and sustainable separation of natural products from agro-industrial waste is clearly attractive considering both socio-environmental and economic aspects. In this paper, the concepts of green and sustainable separation of natural products will be discussed, highlighting the main studies conducted on this topic over the last 10 years. The principal analytical techniques (such as solvent, microwave, ultrasound, and supercritical treatments), by-products (e.g., citrus, coffee, corn, and sugarcane waste) and target compounds (polyphenols, proteins, essential oils, etc.) will be presented, including the emerging green and sustainable separation approaches towards bioeconomy and circular economy contexts.

  7. Constraints on dematerialisation and allocation of natural capital along a sustainable growth path

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rodrigues, Joao; Domingos, Tiago [Seccao de Ambiente e Energia-DEM, IST, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, Lisboa 1049-001 (Portugal); Conceicao, Pedro [Center for Innovation, Technology, and Policy Research, IST, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, Lisboa 1049-001 (Portugal); Belbute, Jose [Department of Economics, University of Evora, Evora (Portugal)

    2005-09-15

    To study societal and biophysical constraints on sustainability, we present an extension of the neoclassical growth model with two new concepts: allocation of natural capital and dematerialisation. We consider that anthropogenic environmental impact is correlated with the material throughput of the economy (materialisation) and that, due to composition change and innovation, this throughput can be reduced-the process of dematerialisation. We also consider that the allocation of natural capital to production negatively affects the endogenous dynamics of ecosystems, reducing the total amount of environmental services ecosystems provide. According to our model, it is possible to achieve unbounded economic growth by keeping the natural system in steady state. Balanced growth, however, is only possible for special parameter values.

  8. Nature-inspired design strategies in sustainable product development : A case study of student projects

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    De Pauw, I.C.; Karana, E.; Kandachar, P.V.

    2012-01-01

    In design practice, Nature-Inspired Design Strategies (NIDS) can be applied when developing sustainable products. However, knowledge on how this actually helps designers is lacking. This study explores the effects of applying Cradle to Cradle and Biomimicry in student projects, as compared to using

  9. MicroRNA Regulation of CD44+ Prostate Tumor Stem/Progenitor Cells and Prostate Cancer Development/Metastasis

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-05-01

    cancer cell capable of initiating tumour growth in immunodeficient mice. Nature 2007;445:106–10. 11. Goodell MA, Brose K, Paradis G, Conner AS, Mulligan...broad-lineage differentiation potential and were able to regenerate mam- mary ductal structures in vivo. Likewise, breast cancer cells with high ALDH

  10. Sustainable shape memory polymers based on epoxidized natural rubber cured by zinc ferulate via oxa-Michael reaction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xuhui Zhang

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Although various shape memory polymers (SMPs or diverse applications have been widely reported, the SMPs based on rubbers have been rarely realized due to the low triggering temperature of rubbers. In another aspect, the SMPs based on sustainable substances are highly desired for the growing shortage in fossil resources. In the present study, we accordingly developed the sustainable SMPs with tunable triggering temperature, based on natural rubber (NR and ferulic acid (FA as the raw materials. Specifically, the SMPs are based on a crosslinked network of epoxidized natural rubber (ENR crosslinked by in situ formed zinc ferulate (ZDF via oxa-Michael reaction. The excellent shape memory effect (SME is found in these SMPs, as evidenced by the high fixity/recovery ratio and the tunable triggering temperature. With the incorporation of natural halloysite nanotubes (HNTs, the stress and recovery rate of the SMPs are found to be tunable, which widens the application of this kind of SMPs. The combination of adoption of sustainable raw materials, and the excellent and tunable SME makes these SMPs potentially useful in many applications, such as various actuators and heat-shrinkable package materials.

  11. Natural windbreaks sustain bird diversity in a tea-dominated landscape.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rachakonda Sreekar

    Full Text Available Windbreaks often form networks of forest habitats that improve connectivity and thus conserve biodiversity, but little is known of such effects in the tropics. We determined bird species richness and community composition in windbreaks composed of remnant native vegetation amongst tea plantations (natural windbreaks, and compared it with the surrounding primary forests. Fifty-one, ten-minute point counts were conducted in each habitat type over three days. Despite the limited sampling period, our bird inventories in both natural windbreaks and primary forests were nearly complete, as indicated by bootstrap true richness estimator. Bird species richness and abundance between primary forests and windbreaks were similar, however a difference in bird community composition was observed. Abundances of important functional groups such as frugivores and insectivores did not vary between habitat types but nectarivores were more abundant in windbreaks, potentially as a result of the use of windbreaks as traveling routes, foraging and nesting sites. This preliminary study suggests that natural windbreaks may be important habitats for the persistence of bird species in a production landscape. However, a better understanding of the required physical and compositional characteristics for windbreaks to sustain bird communities is needed for effective conservation management.

  12. Application of natural resource valuation concepts for development of sustainable remediation plans for groundwater.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Connor, John A; Paquette, Shawn; McHugh, Thomas; Gie, Elaine; Hemingway, Mark; Bianchi, Gino

    2017-12-15

    This paper explores the application of natural resource assessment and valuation procedures as a tool for developing groundwater remediation strategies that achieve the objectives for health and environmental protection, in balance with considerations of economic viability and conservation of natural resources. The natural resource assessment process, as applied under U.S. and international guidelines, entails characterization of groundwater contamination in terms of the pre-existing beneficial services of the impacted resource, the loss of these services caused by the contamination, and the measures and associated costs necessary to restore or replace the lost services. Under many regulatory programs, groundwater remediation objectives assume that the impacted groundwater may be used as a primary source of drinking water in the future, even if not presently in use. In combination with a regulatory preference for removal or treatment technologies, this assumed exposure, while protective of human health, can drive the remedy selection process toward remedies that may not be protective of the groundwater resource itself or of the other natural resources (energy, materials, chemicals, etc.) that may be consumed in the remediation effort. To achieve the same health and environmental protection goals under a sustainable remediation framework, natural resource assessment methods can be applied to restore the lost services and preserve the intact services of the groundwater so as to protect both current and future users of that resource. In this paper, we provide practical guidelines for use of natural resource assessment procedures in the remedy selection process and present a case study demonstrating the use of these protocols for development of sustainable remediation strategies. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  13. On the concept and legal nature of sustainable development: Does 'environmental law' exist?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Prica Miloš

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The idea of sustainable development has developed within the triangular framework of economic, social and environmental policy. It has been the result of man's endeavor in the course of development of mankind to harmonize the relations between economy and ecology for the purpose of satisfying the present needs but without endangering the prospects of future generations to satisfy their own needs. The principle of sustainable development has been present in the international legislation for the past 40 years. The antagonism between economy and ecology has never ceased. Quite the reverse, at the beginning of the 21st century, mankind has encountered the dramatic effects of the rampant global politics and the unpromising prospects of man's subsistence and development. The reason is certainly to be found in the fact that the environment protection policy does not have an adequate legal framework, which is not a matter of legal technique but a matter of substance in global politics. Consequently, this discussion on the legal nature of sustainable development takes us from technique to substance. First, the author analyzes the international legislation and judicature on the issues of sustainable development; thereupon, the author concludes that the principle of sustainable development has not obtained the rank and the outreach of a legal principle (source of law in the international law, which ultimately makes the very existence of environmental law highly disputable. If sustainable development as a fundamental principle (supra-principle does not have the power of a binding principle, the existing international legal sources concerning certain aspects of the living environment are nothing but arable land covered by sand. Actually, the significant feature of the existing international sources on sustainable development is 'the legal ideology' which, being an instrument of environmental policy rather than an instrument of environmental law, actually

  14. Natural capital and ecosystem services for sustainable livelihoods in Costa Vicentina, Portugal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paula Antunes

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available The OpenNESS project, funded by EC FP7, aims to translate the concepts of Natural Capital (NC and Ecosystem Services (ES into operational frameworks that provide tested, practical and tailored solutions for integrating ES into land, water and urban management and decision-making, while promoting local stakeholders well-being. Central to the project is a multi-scale case study approach, designed to ground concepts and theories on real world observations and analysis. This paper presents one of the project case studies, located in the Portuguese southwest coast – Costa Vicentina. This case study is focused on the use of NC and ES concepts to design instruments for sustainable management of living resources (algae, shellfish and fish and to promote a sustainable nature-based tourism. The research aims to (1 identify the linkages between marine natural capital stocks (e.g. bottom algae, shellfish populations,... with ES provision; (2 explore the perceptions and importance of ES to local stakeholders’ wellbeing and their economic value; and (3 evaluate the use of ES in land-use planning and conservation, and the potential of different policy instruments and governance arrangements to ensure the delivery of ES and to promote local stakeholders well-being. The combination of methods such as ES mapping, monetary and non-monetary valuation of ES, and system dynamics modelling, will ultimately be used to inform and support decision makers and policy instruments design. The research is rooted on a participatory process involving the main stakeholder groups, thus fostering dialogue and social learning.

  15. Land Use and Natural Resources Planning for Sustainable Ecotourism Using GIS in Surat Thani, Thailand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuji Murayama

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the land use and natural resources for future sustainable ecotourism site planning using GIS as a tool. The study is based on 2007 land use land cover data and ecotourism suitability data which are then integrated with other GIS datasets to evaluate the land use and natural resources at a district level in Surat Thani province. The final step of this study was the prioritization of the area that is best suited for ecotourism in assessing ecotourism sustainability in Surat Thani province. The result is useful for tourism facilities development and ecotourism resource utilization where ecotourism could be more developed. Additionally, the results can be used for managers and planners working in local and central governments and other non-governmental organizations. These integrated approaches cover complex and universal issues such as sustainable development of ecotourism, biodiversity conservation and protected area management in a tropical and developing country such as Thailand. Moreover, it is believed that this study can be used as a basis for evaluating the suitability of other areas for ecotourism. In addition, it may also serve as a starting point for more complex studies in the future.

  16. CONCEIVING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES OF OAȘ AREA, SATU MARE COUNTY, ON THE BASIS OF NATURAL CAPITAL ASSESSMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    OLIMPIA NEAGU

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The sustainable development essentially depends on natural capital or environment assets and conceiving a sustainable development strategy at local level means first to evaluate it, through inventorying all types of natural resources: vegetable, animal, protected areas, forest and water resources, crops and farming resources, land and pastures and meadows. The area called Țara Oașului, located in the north-eastern part of Satu Mare county has some particular features: a wealth of natural resources (such as forests, stone, mineral water, wild flora and fauna, population with a high level of income and luxurious but uninhabited houses, a high level of migration for work abroad (from the very beginning of nineties, a lack of labour force and active population, a reduced life expectancy, and specific popular traditions (costume, events and culture. We carried out a field reseach, by applying a questionnaire to local population, authorities and experts in order to obtain an estimation of natural resources, as volumes and ways of exploitation (for own consumption or market selling and the main trends in local traditional employment. The research conclusions are valuable in order to conceive the sustainable development strategy of the area, taking into consideration the local capabilities to use the existing natural resources by protecting the environment, to build an appropriate social capital and to attract the required for economic growth human and financial resources.

  17. Sustainability of the use of natural capital in a city: Measuring the size and depth of urban ecological and water footprints.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fang, Kai; Zhang, Qifeng; Yu, Huajun; Wang, Yutao; Dong, Liang; Shi, Lei

    2018-08-01

    The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are limited in their ability to measure progress towards environmental sustainability especially at the city level. The aim of this paper is to provide insights into an integrated assessment of urban sustainability, with emphasis on the significance of the maintenance of natural capital stocks. The use of water and land as critical natural capital in Guiyang, a southeast city in China was investigated by bringing together the ecological footprint (EF), water footprint (WF) and corresponding capacity indicators into an improved three-dimensional (i3D) model. Results showed that Guiyang has long been operating in a state of overshoot due to shortage of annual natural capital flows and accumulated depletion of stocks. This is particularly true for land use, whose stocks maintained a relatively stable level of depletion between 2000 and 2014. As of 2014, an EF depth of 6.45 was accumulated. With respect to water use, a shift in the city's role from creditor to debtor was observed in 2004. Industrial use of natural capital has more than tripled over the past 15 years and replaced agriculture to be the main driver of water unsustainability. Overall, Guiyang's economic growth did not show signs of decoupling from the EF and WF. These findings highlight the need for effective policies that would help Guiyang reduce dependency on the use of critical natural capital. Finally, this paper provided an in-depth discussion of the methodological strengths and limitations of the i3D model and concluded that it is able to track the structural and characteristic dynamics of both flows and stocks while avoiding burden shifting across various components within single forms of natural capital from a strong sustainability perspective. Our study enhances understanding of the critical role of natural capital in ensuring urban sustainability and improving human welfare in connection with SDGs. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Sustained Firing of Model Central Auditory Neurons Yields a Discriminative Spectro-temporal Representation for Natural Sounds

    OpenAIRE

    Carlin, Michael A.; Elhilali, Mounya

    2013-01-01

    The processing characteristics of neurons in the central auditory system are directly shaped by and reflect the statistics of natural acoustic environments, but the principles that govern the relationship between natural sound ensembles and observed responses in neurophysiological studies remain unclear. In particular, accumulating evidence suggests the presence of a code based on sustained neural firing rates, where central auditory neurons exhibit strong, persistent responses to their prefe...

  19. Sustainability Science Education in Africa: Negotiating indigenous ways of living with nature in the third space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glasson, George E.; Mhango, Ndalapa; Phiri, Absalom; Lanier, Marilyn

    2010-01-01

    In response to global climate change, loss of biodiversity, and the immense human impact on the carrying capacity of the earth systems, attention has been given to sustainable development worldwide. In this paper, we explore the emerging field of sustainability science within the context of the socio-cultural milieu of Malawi, a sub-Saharan African country. Through interviews in vernacular languages and observations in the field, our research explores how traditional agriculture practices of African elders may contribute to the sustainability of the environment and culture in Africa. Findings indicate that traditional farmers and food preservationists choose to practice indigenous ways of living with nature to live sustainably in a globalized economy. Further discussion elucidates how merging worldviews and hybridized knowledge and languages can be leveraged to create a third space for dialogue and curriculum development by connecting indigenous ways of living with Eurocentric science.

  20. Plasmodium knowlesi Skeleton-Binding Protein 1 Localizes to the 'Sinton and Mulligan' Stipplings in the Cytoplasm of Monkey and Human Erythrocytes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lucky, Amuza Byaruhanga; Sakaguchi, Miako; Katakai, Yuko; Kawai, Satoru; Yahata, Kazuhide; Templeton, Thomas J; Kaneko, Osamu

    2016-01-01

    The malaria parasite, Plasmodium, exports protein products to the infected erythrocyte to introduce modifications necessary for the establishment of nutrient acquisition and surface display of host interaction ligands. Erythrocyte remodeling impacts parasite virulence and disease pathology and is well documented for the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, but has been less described for other Plasmodium species. For P. falciparum, the exported protein skeleton-binding protein 1 (PfSBP1) is involved in the trafficking of erythrocyte surface ligands and localized to membranous structures within the infected erythrocyte, termed Maurer's clefts. In this study, we analyzed SBP1 orthologs across the Plasmodium genus by BLAST analysis and conserved gene synteny, which were also recently described by de Niz et al. (2016). To evaluate the localization of an SBP1 ortholog, we utilized the zoonotic malaria parasite, Plasmodium knowlesi. Immunofluorescence assay of transgenic P. knowlesi parasites expressing epitope-tagged recombinant PkSBP1 revealed a punctate staining pattern reminiscent of Maurer's clefts, following infection of either monkey or human erythrocytes. The recombinant PkSBP1-positive puncta co-localized with Giemsa-stained structures, known as 'Sinton and Mulligan' stipplings. Immunoelectron microscopy also showed that recombinant PkSBP1 localizes within or on the membranous structures akin to the Maurer's clefts. The recombinant PkSBP1 expressed in P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes co-localized with PfSBP1 at the Maurer's clefts, indicating an analogous trafficking pattern. A member of the P. knowlesi 2TM protein family was also expressed and localized to membranous structures in infected monkey erythrocytes. These results suggest that the trafficking machinery and induced erythrocyte cellular structures of P. knowlesi are similar following infection of both monkey and human erythrocytes, and are conserved with P. falciparum.

  1. On addressing the dual and embedded nature of business and the route towards corporate sustainability

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vermeulen, Walter J.V.; Witjes, Sjors

    2016-01-01

    Abstract This article argues for greater attention to be paid to the dual and embedded nature of business. We propose that a more inclusive systemic perspective is needed for the challenge of speeding up the application of ‘inclusive’ corporate sustainability. The key question is how an on-going

  2. Comparison of efficacy of mulligan's mobilization with movement with maitland mobilization along with conventional therapy in the patients with knee osteoarthritis: A randomized clinical trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aniqa Kiran

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the outcome and efficacy of Mulligan's mobilization with movement (MWM with Maitland mobilization along with conventional therapy in the patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA. Materials and Methods: A randomized controlled trial study was performed at the Department of Physiotherapy, Mayo Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan. Sixty-two patients were selected for the study. MWM was introduced in half of the patients and Maitland mobilizations in the second half for 2 weeks. The goniometry, visual analog scale (VAS, knee range of motion (ROM, and Western Ontario McMaster OA (WOMAC Index for knee OA were the assessment tools used to assess all patients before and after 2 weeks of intervention. Paired sample t-test was used for analysis of results. Results: The mean pre- and postdifferences in MWM group were 4.06 ± 0.99, 10.19 ± 3.87, and 19.41 ± 7.58 for VAS, ROM flexion, and WOMAC Index, respectively, while the pre- and postmean difference values for Maitland mobilization group were 3.355 ± 1.05, 10.19 ± 5.5, and 12.28 ± 7.029 for VAS, ROM flexion, and WOMAC Index, respectively. The mean differences of both treatment interventions individually were significant and showed that both were clinically effective in treating the patients of knee OA. Conclusion: It was concluded that patients in both groups showed improvement in pain, ROM, and functions.

  3. Socio-economic importance of environmentally sustainable nature tourism in Pakistan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Siddiqui, S.

    2005-01-01

    The research paper deals with the nature tourism which is defined as unremunerated visits by local and foreign mountaineers, trekkers and rock climbers to the mountainous areas in Gilgit, Skardu and Chitral. Pakistan is gifted with one of the richest and unique collection of high mountains with three spectacular mountain ranges of the world Karakoram, Hindukush and Himalayas located in the Northern Areas. These ranges have more than 700 peaks above 6000 meters, with as many as 160 peaks rising above 7000 meters. Five out of the total fourteen peaks rising above eight thousand meters, namely K-2, Nanga Parbat, the Hidden Peak Gasherbrum-I, the Broad peak and the Gasherbrum-ll, situated within 20 Kms radius around famous glacial junction-Concordia in Karakoram. Nature Tourism besides being of importance to Federal Government as a source of foreign exchange earnings through royalty and trekking fees, tt is of particular importance for the local economy in the Northern Areas where nature tourists generate considerable economic activities. The Research Paper intends to study and analyze prospects and scope of Nature Tourism in Pakistan with a view to highlight dangers of environmental degradation and suggest balanced set of measures for promoting nature tourism with minimal negative environmental impact. The Research study is primarily based on secondary data collected by Ministry of Tourism during debriefing of mountaineers and trekkers, supplemented with primary data collected through self completion questionnaire and structured interview of Adventure and participants of International Conference on sustainable Tourism -New Vision and the Moving Force for Poverty Alleviation, held in Lahore on April 12 -13, 2005 Tour Operators. The analysis shows that owing to relatively small size of nature tourism environmental condition in Pakistan is not as bad as it might be in other comparable countries. Nevertheless with the growing volume of nature tourism there is a need to

  4. Sustainable development and the nature of environmental legal principles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J Verschuuren

    2006-05-01

    Full Text Available In this article, “things” lawyers call “principles” of environmental law will be discussed from a theoretical perspective. Three fundamental questions are answered: 1. Where does the high moral value that is usually attributed principles come from? 2. What is the exact difference between a principle and a legal rule, and between a principle and a policy? 3. What is the relationship between a principle and more concrete legal rules and policies? It is argued that principles of environmental law receive their high moral value from the ideal of sustainable development. An ideal is a value that is explicit, implicit or latent in the law, or the public and moral culture of a society or group that usually cannot be fully realised, and that partly transcends contingent, historical formulations, and implementations in terms of rules and principles. Principles form a necessary link between directly applicable and enforceable environmental legal rules and the underlying ideal. They are a necessary medium for ideals to find their way into concrete rules and can be used to bridge the gap between the morality of duty and the morality of aspiration. Because of their basis in (written or unwritten law and their possible direct and intense influence on legal rules concerning activities that may harm the environment, they must be placed within the morality of duty: a bridgehead within the morality of duty reaching out for the morality of aspiration. From the general function of principles of forming a beachhead in the morality of duty, nine more concrete functions can be derived. These functions principles, both of a substantive and of a procedural nature, have, make it possible to distinguish them from legal rules. It must be acknowledged, however, that there is no very strict separation between principles on one side and rules on the other: environmental norms can be placed on a sliding scale with rules on one side and principles on the other side

  5. Preliminary Studies on the Use of Natural Fibers in Sustainable Concrete

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Awad, E.; Mabsout, M.; Hamad, B.; Khatib, H.

    2011-01-01

    The paper reports on preliminary tests performed to produce a sustainable 'green' concrete material using natural fibers such as industrial hemp, palm, and banana leaves fibers. Such material would increse the service life and reduce the life cost of the structure, and would have a positive effect on social life and social economy. The demand for the agricultural fibers for concrete production would be a major incentive to Lebanese farmers to benefit from the social impact on the habitat level of living. In the preliminary program reported in this paper, cubes and standard flexural beams were tested to evaluate the structural and physical performance of concrete mixes prepared with different volumetric ratios of added fibers and diffeent proportions of aggregates. Test results indicated that the case of natural fibers resulted in reducing the coarse aggregate quantity without affecting the flexural performance of concrete. However, no clear trend was determined in the cubes compressive strength test results.(author)

  6. Textiles and clothing sustainability sustainable textile chemical processes

    CERN Document Server

    2017-01-01

    This book highlights the challenges in sustainable wet processing of textiles, natural dyes, enzymatic textiles and sustainable textile finishes. Textile industry is known for its chemical processing issues and many NGO’s are behind the textile sector to streamline its chemical processing, which is the black face of clothing and fashion sector. Sustainable textile chemical processes are crucial for attaining sustainability in the clothing sector. Seven comprehensive chapters are aimed to highlight these issues in the book.

  7. Sustainable Solution for Crude Oil and Natural Gas Separation using Concentrated Solar Power Technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choudhary, Piyush; Srivastava, Rakesh K.; Nath Mahendra, Som; Motahhir, Saad

    2017-08-01

    In today’s scenario to combat with climate change effects, there are a lot of reasons why we all should use renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels. Solar energy is one of the best options based on features like good for the environment, independent of electricity prices, underutilized land, grid security, sustainable growth, etc. This concept paper is oriented primarily focused on the use of Solar Energy for the crude oil heating purpose besides other many prospective industrial applications to reduce cost, carbon footprint and moving towards a sustainable and ecologically friendly Oil & Gas Industry. Concentrated Solar Power technology based prototype system is proposed to substitute the presently used system based on natural gas burning method. The hybrid system which utilizes the solar energy in the oil and gas industry would strengthen the overall field working conditions, safety measures and environmental ecology. 40% reduction on natural gas with this hybrid system is estimated. A positive implication for an environment, working conditions and safety precautions is the additive advantage. There could also decrease air venting of CO2, CH4 and N2O by an average of 30-35%.

  8. Local natural resource curse and sustainable socio-economic development in a Russian mining community of Kovdor

    OpenAIRE

    Tuomas Kristian Suutarinen

    2015-01-01

    Natural resource extraction forms the backbone of the Russian economy and characterizes the majority of regions and communities in the Russian North. The long-term socio-economic sustainability of natural resource extraction in resource abundant countries has been questioned and discussed in various social sciences with the resource curse theory, which, however, is understudied on the local level. This study creates a local resource curse theory that is based on the basic idea that there are ...

  9. Geoscience and sustainability

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grindsted, Thomas Skou

    2018-01-01

    This paper explores how scientists entangle themselves in between keywords and buzzwords when they make use of concepts like sustainability. It sketches out theoretical distinctions between keywords and buzzwords. Then it turns to the concept of nature discussing the paradox that nature embraces...... the same fuzzy, slippery and contingent character as does sustainability, yet the former has a deep ontological status, the latter does not. The paper explores a related paradox: natural sciences claim we live in the Anthropocene, in which humans have transformed geochemical cycles, e.g. of methane...... and carbon dioxide as much as they changed between glacial and interglacial periods. Yet, science favors (external) nature as a keyword, sustainability as a buzzword. This should cause deep reflections on how scientists make use of the power of reference in between keywords and buzzwords – as well...

  10. From Environmental Connectedness to Sustainable Futures: Topophilia and Human Affiliation with Nature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas Beery

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Human affiliation with nonhuman nature is an important dimension of environmental concern and support for pro-environmental attitudes. A significant theory of human connectedness with nature, the Biophilia Hypothesis, suggests that there exists a genetically based inclination for human affiliation with the biological world. Both support and challenge to the Biophilia Hypothesis are abundant in the literature of environmental psychology. One response that both challenges and builds upon the Biophilia Hypothesis is the Topophilia Hypothesis. The Topophilia Hypothesis has extended the ideas of biophilia to incorporate a broader conception of nonhuman nature and a co-evolutionary theory of genetic response and cultural learning. While the Topophilia Hypothesis is a new idea, it is built upon long-standing scholarship from humanistic geography and theories in human evolution. The Topophilia Hypothesis expands previous theory and provides a multidisciplinary consideration of how biological selection and cultural learning may have interacted during human evolution to promote adaptive mechanisms for human affiliation with nonhuman nature via specific place attachment. Support for this possible co-evolutionary foundation for place-based human affiliation with nonhuman nature is explored from multiple vantage points. We raise the question of whether this affiliation may have implications for multifunctional landscape management. Ultimately, we propose that nurturing potential topophilic tendencies may be a useful method to promote sustainable efforts at the local level with implications for the global.

  11. Measuring the sustainability of a natural system by using multi-criteria distance function methods: Some critical issues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diaz-Balteiro, L; Belavenutti, P; Ezquerro, M; González-Pachón, J; Ribeiro Nobre, S; Romero, C

    2018-05-15

    There is an important body of literature using multi-criteria distance function methods for the aggregation of a battery of sustainability indicators in order to obtain a composite index. This index is considered to be a proxy of the sustainability goodness of a natural system. Although this approach has been profusely used in the literature, it is not exempt from difficulties and potential pitfalls. Thus, in this paper, a significant number of critical issues have been identified showing different procedures capable of avoiding, or at least of mitigating, the inherent potential pitfalls associated with each one. The recommendations made in the paper could increase the theoretical soundness of the multi-criteria distance function methods when this type of approach is applied in the sustainability field, thus increasing the accuracy and realism of the sustainability measurements obtained. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Assessing impacts of payments for watershed services on sustainability in coupled human and natural systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heidi Asbjornsen; Alex S. Mayer; Kelly W. Jones; Theresa Selfa; Leonardo Saenz; Randall K. Kolka; Kathleen E. Halvorsen

    2015-01-01

    Payments for watershed services (PWS) as a policy tool for enhancing water quality and supply have gained momentum in recent years, but their ability to lead to sustainable watershed outcomes is uncertain. Consequently, the demand for effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of PWS impacts on coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) and their implications for...

  13. Sustainable development strategy : moving forward

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2004-01-01

    This publication demonstrates the steps that Natural Resources Canada has taken to optimize the contribution of natural resources to sustainable development. Canada's forestry, minerals, metals and energy sectors are key components to Canada's overall economy and society. The Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) focuses on the development and use of Canada's resources in a responsible manner that will maintain the integrity of natural ecosystems and safeguard the quality of life for Canadians. All decision-making takes into account economic, environmental and social considerations. The challenges facing the natural resources sector include the management of forests, the development of clean energy options, and the recycling and reuse of minerals and metals resources. This publication outlines the specific goals and objectives set by Natural Resources Canada that will make the SDS possible through programs, policies, legislation, technology utilization and operations. It also describes Canada's progress in meeting the following 4 commitments: (1) Canadians make better decisions that advance sustainable development, (2) Canadians are taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change, (3) Canada is recognized globally as a responsible steward of natural resources and a leader in advancing sustainable development, and (4) Natural Resources Canada demonstrates its commitment to sustainable development in its operations. tabs

  14. The impact of climate change on natural risks in the context of sustainable development: the case of Catalonia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Llasat, Maria-Carmen; Queralt, Arnau

    2013-04-01

    The evidence of the impact of the anthropogenic activity over the climate change, as well as the consequent impacts in temperature, snow cover and sea level has been widely demonstrated (IPCC, 2007). However, the impact of climate change on natural risks is still not clear, and the degree of uncertainty is high. The main problem lays in the complexity of the factors involved in the production of natural disasters, mainly those related with the vulnerability (in the more holistic sense of the expression), that is continuously being modified. In terms of the impact of climate change on hazards, the analysis is still complicated, and this difficulty increases when meteorological hazards that combine meteorological factors with other ones (human and/or natural) are considered (i.e. floods, wet landslides, forest fires, etc.). The Advisory Council for the Sustainable Development of Catalonia (CADS) is an advisory body which gives strategic advice to the Catalan Government in the field of sustainable development. This contribution shows the main results of a recent report elaborated by the CADS that analyses the present and potential evolution of natural risks in Catalonia (NE of Iberian Peninsula) and the influence of climate change in it. The analysis is made from the point of view of sustainable development, having in mind the international approach (IPCC, 2007, 2011; UNISDR, 2009; Molin, 2009; Brauch, 2010) and with special incidence in potential problems related with security and civil protection. Conclusions identify as main problems those that will affect health (as a consequence of the increase of heat waves and temperature extremes) and water scarcity.

  15. Static stretch versus Mulligan Concept – long-term effects in gymnast’s flexibility DOI:10.5007/1980-0037.2010v12n3p202

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manuela Karloh

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Flexibility is one of the most important physical aspects in Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG. The purpose of the study was to compare long-term changes in flexibility of hip extension in athletes of RG in function of two techniques: the static stretch and Mulligan’s Long Leg Traction. Participated eight female athletes with an average age of 13,25±0,89 years old, divided into two groups. Group1 performed Mulligan technique and Group2 performed static stretch. Flexibility training lasts for six weeks. It was executed 2 times a week, and was composed by 2 repetitions of 30 seconds for each lower limb. Photogrammetry was used to assess the range of motion (ROM of hip extension. ROM was assessed before and after six weeks of training. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The increase of ROM was statistically significant in both lower limbs in Group 1, and in right lower limb (RLL in Group 2. After six weeks of training the increase of ROM in Group 1 was 6,25°± 2,75º in left lower limb (LLL and 5,25°± 2,63º in RLL, and the increase in Group 2 was 6,75º± 4,64º in LLL and 5,5º± 3,41º in RLL. Comparing the two executed techniques, in relation to the increase of ROM, there were no statistically significant differences. We conclude that after six weeks of training the two proposed techniques have showed increases in range of motion.

  16. Natural biotic resources in LCA: Towards an impact assessment model for sustainable supply chain management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crenna, Eleonora; Sozzo, Sara; Sala, Serenella

    2018-01-20

    Natural resources, biotic and abiotic, are fundamental from both the ecological and socio-economic point of view, being at the basis of life-support. However, since the demand for finite resources continues to increase, the sustainability of current production and consumption patterns is questioned both in developed and developing countries. A transition towards an economy based on biotic renewable resources (bio-economy) is considered necessary in order to support a steady provision of resources, representing an alternative to an economy based on fossil and abiotic resources. However, to ensure a sustainable use of biotic resources, there is the need of properly accounting for their use along supply chains as well as defining a robust and comprehensive impact assessment model. Since so far naturally occurring biotic resources have gained little attention in impact assessment methods, such as life cycle assessment, the aim of this study is to enable the inclusion of biotic resources in the assessment of products and supply chains. This paper puts forward a framework for biotic resources assessment, including: i) the definition of system boundaries between ecosphere and technosphere, namely between naturally occurring and man-made biotic resources; ii) a list of naturally occurring biotic resources which have a commercial value, as basis for building life cycle inventories (NOBR, e.g. wild animals, plants etc); iii) an impact pathway to identify potential impacts on both resource provision and ecosystem quality; iv) a renewability-based indicator (NOBRri) for the impact assessment of naturally occurring biotic resources, including a list of associated characterization factors. The study, building on a solid review of literature and of available statistical data, highlights and discusses the critical aspects and paradoxes related to biotic resource inclusion in LCA: from the system boundaries definition up to the resource characterization.

  17. The study of environmental carrying capacity for sustainable tourism in Telaga Warna Telaga Pengilon Nature Park, Dieng Plateu, Central Java

    Science.gov (United States)

    Melat Aryasa, Alexander; Nur Bambang, Azis; Muhammad, Fuad

    2017-06-01

    The increasing in quantity of the tourists visiting Telaga Warna Telaga Pengilon Nature Park, Dieng Plateau, Central Java, can cause a potential threat toward the conservation sustainability of the tourist attraction and the surrounding area. The utilization of conservation area for tourist attraction has to be carried out based on the principal of Environmental Carrying Capacity so that it will not affect the ecosystem. This study aims to determine the value of Telaga Warna Telaga Pengilon Nature Park environmental carrying capacity as a conservation area used for tourism activities. The environmental carrying capacities calculated in this study were physical carrying capacity, real carrying capacity, and effective carrying capacity. Results of this research show that the physical carrying capacity of The Telaga Warna Telaga Pengilon Nature Park was 31,302 visitors, the real capacity was 869 visitors/day and the effective carrying capacity was 579 visitors/day. Thus, the sustainable tourism development strategy is needed to manage the everlasting natural resources.

  18. Influence of Natural, Synthetic Polymers and Fillers on sustained release matrix tablets of Pregabalin

    OpenAIRE

    Vijaya Durga. K; Ashok Kumar. P; Suresh V Kulkarni

    2013-01-01

    The objective of the present study was to develop sustained release matrix tablets of Pregabalin for the treatment of neuropathic pain and epilepsy. The tablets were prepared by wet granulation and formulated using drug with Hydrophilic, hydrophobic, synthetic, natural polymers and 4 different fillers were used. The effect of Polymer concentration, combination and fillers on drug release rate was analyzed for the formulations F-1 to F-17. The tablets were subjected to physicochemical studies,...

  19. Sustainable built environments

    CERN Document Server

    Haase, Dagmar

    2013-01-01

    Sustainable design is a collective process whereby the built environment achieves unprecedented levels of ecological balance through new and retrofit construction, with the goal of long-term viability and humanization of architecture. Focusing on the environmental context, sustainable design merges the natural, minimum resource conditioning solutions of the past (daylight, solar heat, and natural ventilation) with the innovative technologies of the present.  The desired result is an integrated “intelligent” system that supports individual control with expert negotiation for resource consciousness. International experts in the field address the fundamental questions of sustainable design and landscape management: How should the sustainability of landscapes and buildings be evaluated? Which targets have to be set and which thresholds should not be exceeded? What forms of planning and governance structures exist and to what extent do they further the goals of sustainability?  Gathering 30 peer-reviewed ent...

  20. Nature inspired design : Strategies towards sustainability

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    De Pauw, I.C.; Kandachar, P.V.; Karana, E.; Peck, D.P.; Wever, R.

    2010-01-01

    Current design practices focus on eco-efficiency as the main approach in the field of sustainable product development. This approach mainly aims at improving existing products and services. Environmental product performance can be greatly improved using ecoefficiency but in many cases the

  1. Formulation and in vitro evaluation of sustained release matrix tablets using cross-linked natural gum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jamil, Qurratul Ain; Masood, Muhammad Irfan; Jamil, Muhammad Nauman; Masood, Imran; Iqbal, Shahid Muhammad

    2017-03-01

    Polysaccharide gums because of their biocompatibility, biodegradability and non-immunogenic properties are considered as the best choice for preparing sustained release tablets as compared to their synthetic counterpart. The cross linking of natural gums in matrix tablets increase the sustained release property of matrix tablets. Isoniazid is a first line therapy of tuberculosis, belongs to BCS I with half-life of 3-4 hours. These characteristics make isoniazid a good candidate for sustained release dosage form. Karaya gum crossed linked with trisodium tri metaphosphate was used as release rate retardant for preparing isoniazid cross-linked matrix tablet. Total 8 sustained release formulations were prepared. Both granules and tablets were evaluated under in vitro condition against different parameters. Dissolution studies were performed with all eight formulations for 12 hours using USP apparatus I. Four formulations designated as F1, F2, F3, F4 have drug and karaya gum while other four formulations F5, F6, F7, F8 have drug and crossed linked polymer in ratios of 1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4 respectively. Dissolution data was analyzed by using different kinetic models. Best fit model for most efficient formulation was zero order while release mechanism was super case I. Formulation 8 showed sufficiently slow release kinetics and about 83% of drug was released in 10 hours, indicating that cross-linked karaya gum proved efficient in preparing sustained release tablets.

  2. Investing in human and natural capital. An alternative paradigm for sustainable development in Awassa, Ethiopia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reynolds, Travis W.; Farley, Joshua; Huber, Candice

    2010-01-01

    Ethiopia remains underdeveloped due to limitations in natural, human, social and built capital. A 2006 scientific atelier conducted in the city of Awassa, Ethiopia investigated investments in human and natural capital as a sustainable development strategy. Local stakeholders identified firewood shortages, degradation of croplands, rising lake levels encroaching on croplands and poor water quality as major impediments to development. They further identified ecological degradation as a key component of these problems, and they acknowledged multiple vicious cycles compounding the environmental and economic threats to the Awassa community. Proposed solutions included investment in natural capital in the form of reforestation activities, investment in human capital in the form of promoting more efficient wood stoves along with increasing public awareness of environmental threats, and investments in social capital in the form of inter-institutional coordination to address environmental problems. All recommended investments rely primarily on national resources, in distinct contrast to the extensive imports required for most built capital investments. Unfortunately, Awassa lacks the surplus necessary for major capital investments of any kind. The atelier therefore helped local participants identify potential funders and write grant proposals for various projects, though none have been funded so far. Reversing the ecological degradation on the scale necessary for sustained economic development in Ethiopia however will require a steady flow of substantial investments, and cannot rely solely on the short term generosity of funders. International payments for carbon sequestration and other ecosystem services could help provide the necessary resources. (author)

  3. Investing in human and natural capital. An alternative paradigm for sustainable development in Awassa, Ethiopia

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Reynolds, Travis W. [Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98195 (United States); Farley, Joshua [Gund Institute for Ecological Economics and Department of Community Development and Applied Economics, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, 05405 (United States); Huber, Candice [UVM Agricultural Extension Service, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, 05405 (United States)

    2010-09-15

    Ethiopia remains underdeveloped due to limitations in natural, human, social and built capital. A 2006 scientific atelier conducted in the city of Awassa, Ethiopia investigated investments in human and natural capital as a sustainable development strategy. Local stakeholders identified firewood shortages, degradation of croplands, rising lake levels encroaching on croplands and poor water quality as major impediments to development. They further identified ecological degradation as a key component of these problems, and they acknowledged multiple vicious cycles compounding the environmental and economic threats to the Awassa community. Proposed solutions included investment in natural capital in the form of reforestation activities, investment in human capital in the form of promoting more efficient wood stoves along with increasing public awareness of environmental threats, and investments in social capital in the form of inter-institutional coordination to address environmental problems. All recommended investments rely primarily on national resources, in distinct contrast to the extensive imports required for most built capital investments. Unfortunately, Awassa lacks the surplus necessary for major capital investments of any kind. The atelier therefore helped local participants identify potential funders and write grant proposals for various projects, though none have been funded so far. Reversing the ecological degradation on the scale necessary for sustained economic development in Ethiopia however will require a steady flow of substantial investments, and cannot rely solely on the short term generosity of funders. International payments for carbon sequestration and other ecosystem services could help provide the necessary resources. (author)

  4. Position of the American Dietetic Association: food and nutrition professionals can implement practices to conserve natural resources and support ecological sustainability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harmon, Alison H; Gerald, Bonnie L

    2007-06-01

    It is the position of the American Dietetic Association to encourage environmentally responsible practices that conserve natural resources, minimize the quantity of waste generated, and support the ecological sustainability of the food system-the process of food production, transformation, distribution, access, and consumption. Registered dietitians and dietetic technicians, registered, play various roles in the food system and work in settings where efforts to conserve can have significant effects. Natural resources that provide the foundation for the food system include biodiversity, soil, land, energy, water, and air. A food system that degrades or depletes its resource base is not sustainable. Making wise food purchases and food management decisions entails understanding the external costs of food production and foodservice and how these external costs affect food system sustainability. This position paper provides information, specific action-oriented strategies, and resources to guide registered dietitians and dietetic technicians, registered, in food decision making and professional practice. Food and nutrition professionals also can participate in policy making at the local, state, and national levels, and can support policies that encourage the development of local sustainable food systems. Our actions today have global consequences. Conserving and protecting resources will contribute to the sustainability of the global food system now and in the future.

  5. Layer-by-layer films assembled from natural polymers for sustained release of neurotrophin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Zhiling; Li, Qianqi; Han, Lin; Zhong, Yinghui

    2015-01-01

    Cortical neural prostheses (CNPs) hold great promise for paralyzed patients by recording neural signals from the brain and translating them into movement commands. However, these electrodes normally fail to record neural signals weeks to months after implantation due to inflammation and neuronal loss around the implanted neural electrodes. Sustained local delivery of neurotrophins from biocompatible coatings on CNPs can potentially promote neuron survival and attract the nearby neurons to migrate toward the electrodes to increase neuron density at the electrode/brain interface, which is important for maintaining the recording quality and long-term performance of the implanted CNPs. However, sustained release of neurotrophins from biocompatible ultrathin coatings is very difficult to achieve. In this study, we investigated the potential of several biocompatible natural polyanions including heparin, dextran sulfate, and gelatin to form layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly with positively charged neurotrophin nerve growth factor (NGF) and its model protein lysozyme, and whether sustained release of NGF and lysozyme can be achieved from the nanoscale thin LbL coatings. We found that gelatin, which is less negatively charged than heparin and dextran sulfate, showed the highest efficacy in loading proteins into the LbL films because other interactions in addition to electrostatic interactions were involved in LbL assembly. Sustained release of NGF and lysozymes for approximately 2 weeks was achieved from the gelatin-based LbL coatings. Released NGF maintained the bioactivity to stimulate neurite outgrowth from PC12 cells. Gelatin is generally recognized as safe by the FDA. Thus, the biocompatible LbL coating developed in this study is highly promising to be used for implanted CNPs to improve their long-term performance in human patients. (paper)

  6. Identifying Nature's Benefits, Deficits, and Opportunities for Equitable Distribution in Populated Places:A High-Resolution Component of the National Atlas for Sustainability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Towns and cities rely on clean air, water and other natural resources for economic sustainability and quality of life. Yet, these natural resources and their benefits are not always fully understood or considered in local decisions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and ...

  7. Use and usefulness of sustainability economics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bartelmus, Peter [Bergische Universitaet Wuppertal (Germany)

    2010-09-15

    Sustainable development is at the roots of sustainability economics. Baumgaertner and Quaas (2010) define sustainability economics as the combination of economic efficiency and justice in the distribution of nature's services. Van den Bergh (in press) criticizes their approach as 'axiomatic' and incomplete, lacking a discussion of environmental externalities and dogmas like the 'GDP dogma'. The focus on non-measurable welfare or happiness in both articles impairs the use and usefulness of their sustainability notions for applied economics and policy. Alternatively, environmentally modified national accounts offer a quantifiable sustainability concept of produced and natural capital maintenance. For practical reasons, sustainability economics should therefore deal with sustainable economic performance and growth. Coordination with other social goals has to be left to politics. (author)

  8. Medicinal herbs as part of the development of sustainable tourism in Nature park 'Stara Planina'

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ratknić Tatjana

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Implementation of the concept of sustainable exploitation of medicinal plant resources facilitates the development of tourism offering and the related activities that would enhance the development of rural areas in this region. When managed in a sustainable manner, tourism can bring many advantages to protected areas, tourism industry and a local community. By using high-resolution satellite images and application of GIS technology, a method is developed for monitoring periodic changes in eco-systems. The collected data enable design of models that incorporate in themselves dynamics of changes taking place in natural ecosystems. By means of periodic imaging of characteristic areas, the spatial representation of eco-systems will be monitored, along with the changes in their composition and structure, which may seriously endanger the development of tourism potential in the region. The integral approach to the management of medicinal herb resources in the region of Mt. Stara Planina, based on the results of this study, necessitates the integration of these results with the results of the studies investigating views and needs of the local population, whose quality of life depends on sustainability of the process of collection and valorization of this resource.

  9. Making the Sustainable Development Goals Consistent with Sustainability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mathis Wackernagel

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The UN’s Sustainable development Goals (SDGs are the most significant global effort so far to advance global sustainable development. Bertelsmann Stiftung and the sustainable development solutions network released an SDG index to assess countries’ average performance on SDGs. Ranking high on the SDG index strongly correlates with high per person demand on nature (or “Footprints”, and low ranking with low Footprints, making evident that the SDGs as expressed today vastly underperform on sustainability. Such underperformance is anti-poor because lowest-income people exposed to resource insecurity will lack the financial means to shield themselves from the consequences. Given the significance of the SDGs for guiding development, rigorous accounting is essential for making them consistent with the goals of sustainable development: thriving within the means of planet Earth.

  10. Making the Sustainable Development Goals Consistent with Sustainability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wackernagel, Mathis; Hanscom, Laurel; Lin, David

    2017-01-01

    The UN’s Sustainable development Goals (SDGs) are the most significant global effort so far to advance global sustainable development. Bertelsmann Stiftung and the sustainable development solutions network released an SDG index to assess countries’ average performance on SDGs. Ranking high on the SDG index strongly correlates with high per person demand on nature (or “Footprints”), and low ranking with low Footprints, making evident that the SDGs as expressed today vastly underperform on sustainability. Such underperformance is anti-poor because lowest-income people exposed to resource insecurity will lack the financial means to shield themselves from the consequences. Given the significance of the SDGs for guiding development, rigorous accounting is essential for making them consistent with the goals of sustainable development: thriving within the means of planet Earth.

  11. Making the Sustainable Development Goals Consistent with Sustainability

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wackernagel, Mathis, E-mail: mathis.wackernagel@footprintnetwork.org; Hanscom, Laurel; Lin, David [Global Footprint Network, Oakland, CA (United States)

    2017-07-11

    The UN’s Sustainable development Goals (SDGs) are the most significant global effort so far to advance global sustainable development. Bertelsmann Stiftung and the sustainable development solutions network released an SDG index to assess countries’ average performance on SDGs. Ranking high on the SDG index strongly correlates with high per person demand on nature (or “Footprints”), and low ranking with low Footprints, making evident that the SDGs as expressed today vastly underperform on sustainability. Such underperformance is anti-poor because lowest-income people exposed to resource insecurity will lack the financial means to shield themselves from the consequences. Given the significance of the SDGs for guiding development, rigorous accounting is essential for making them consistent with the goals of sustainable development: thriving within the means of planet Earth.

  12. Towards a Global Sustainable Information Society (GSIS?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christian Fuchs

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available The development, diffusion, and adoption of new ICTs doesn’t automatically result in ecological sustainability, it poses both new opportunities and risks. Embedded into the antagonism between capital and economy it seems like the logical of profitability frequently offsets ecological awareness and hence has negative effects on the realization of positive potentials of ICTs on the environment. Environmental problems are social problems, not technological problems, they are neither caused by science or technology as such, nor can they be solved by science or technology as such. The discourse on sustainable development shows a shift from the view of nature as an enemy that must be controlled to a view that considers nature as an important pre-condition of human existence that must be treated carefully. In the discourse on sustainability there has been a shift from a focus on ecological issues towards the inclusion of broader societal issues. It has now become very common to identify an ecological, an economic, a social, and an institutional dimension of sustainability. One can distinguish four types of sustainability concepts based on where in the nature-society-relationship they locate sustainability: ecological reductionism, social projectionism, dualism, man-nature-dialectic. Both nature and society are self-organizing systems in the sense that they permanently produce themselves. Ecological sustainability means that humans appropriate nature in a way that allows ecological diversity, i.e. the autopoiesis of nature can develop in such a way that nature flourishes, reproduces its subsystems, differentiates itself and produces new qualities, i.e. new ecological life forms and subsystems. Societal sustainability can broadly be defined as a good life for all. A sustainable society encompasses ecological diversity, technological usability, economic wealth, political participation, and cultural wisdom. Ecological sustainability is based on social

  13. Risk forewarning of regional development sustainability based on a natural resources and environmental carrying index in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Jie; Wang, Yafei; Ouyang, Zhiyun; Li, Lijuan; Xu, Yong; Zhang, Wenzhong; Wang, Chuansheng; Xu, Weihua; Li, Jiuyi; Yu, Jianhui; Zhou, Kan

    2017-02-01

    It is a matter of public consensus that China's high growth rate has been achieved at the expense of natural resources and the environment, leading to serious risks to sustainability. This research, which proposes a theoretical model to forewarn of risks to regional developmental sustainability in China, constitutes the first empirical evaluation of this to be undertaken there. The results show that: (a) the areas at risk cover almost 43% of the land and 44% of the population of mainland China. In those areas, 83.56% of people at risk are threatened by the low carrying capacity of the environment and limited water resources. (b) With 70% of the total population living in "at risk" areas, urbanization zones remain as the primary category suffering from overload across China. Extensive industrialization has resulted in environmental pollution, which contributes the most to the forewarning status, while the secondary cause is found to be the special coupling of the scarcity of natural water resources and their inefficient use. In addition, most urban conglomerations suffer from pollution by industrial production and household consumption, which tends to extend to their surrounding agricultural areas. Extensive mineral exploitation in ecologically fragile areas has made them increasingly more vulnerable to disturbances from their neighboring resource-driven urban areas. The paper uses these findings to suggest how to intensify the special regulatory administration of resources and the environment, and to transform approaches to industrialization, in order to address sustainable development issues in developing countries.

  14. Making sustainability work

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Binswanger, Hans Christoph

    1998-01-01

    Today's economic theory usually neglects the role of nature and environment. To make sustainability work it is, however, essential to (re-)integrate nature into the standard concepts of economics, especially by incorporating natural factors into the production function. It must be acknowledged that economic growth is not (only) the result of technical change but is mainly caused by rising energy-inputs into the economy, and that this is necessarily followed by resource exhaustion and pollution. Therefore, nature must not only be taken into account as a central factor of production but also in the form of environmental quality which is the basis for human quality of life. A numeric example shows that a small, but steady decrease of yearly resource consumption is already apt to redirect the economy on a path of sustainable development

  15. Sustainable development through natural resource development in Dir Kohistan North West Frontier Province Pakistan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khan, S. E.mail: erp@brain.net.pk

    2005-01-01

    Up to the middle of the past century it was possible to prevent the depletion of natural resources though good governance and the effective enforcement of the prevailing land tenure by legal and social control. This is no longer so, far several reasons. Both governance and social control have greatly deteriorated. Land tenure has not kept pace with rapid increase in population and the incidence of poverty and landlessness. Not finding redress in the established legal and social orders the landless and the poor have taken resource to illicit use for subsistence and eking out a living. Thus sustainable management of natural resources has become a daunting challenge in an era of declining resources, increasing demand, deteriorating governance and eroding social control. Recent experimental endeavors are attempting to develop flexible model of collaborative management, which could be applied successfully in the immensely variable socio-economic milieus of the countryside. Issues of resource degradation and regeneration is intimately linked to questions of power, poverty, institutions, livelihoods and culture. Natural Resource Management must become integral part of overall development strategies. (author)

  16. Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fabio Caporali

    Full Text Available In the framework of the 16th National Meeting of the Italian Ecological Society (“Global Change, Ecological Diversity and Sustainability”, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, 19-22 September 2006, a symposium was devoted to “Agroecology and Sustainable Development”. A major goal of this symposium was to contribute to keeping the dialogue among the experts of the various disciplines alive. Sustainability of agriculture is a challenge for society world wide. Universities and society as a whole have a responsibility in re-examining current perception of nature, of the world and of human society in the light of natural resources depletion, increasing pollution and social inequalities. The urgency to address sustainability issues is increasingly being reflected in the manner in which institutions of higher education around the world are giving priority to the teaching, research and practice of sustainability. The University of Tuscia is involved in international initiatives concerning teaching and research in Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture.

  17. Participatory Research and Development for Sustainable Agriculture ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Participatory Research and Development for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management - A Sourcebook Volume 3 : Doing Participatory Research and Development. Couverture du livre Participatory Research and Development for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management : A.

  18. Natural resources sustainability: iron ore mining

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    De La Torre de Palacios, Luis

    2011-01-01

    In the present article, a new tool to determine environmental sustainability, the energy impact index (EII) was developed to classify different iron mine projects according to two main parameters including energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. The EII considers the characteristics of the mineral (such as the quality, size, hardness, iron ore grade, reducibility, mineral/waste rate, and type of deposit), mining processes (type of exploitation, ore processing, available technology), and transportation (distance to cover).

  19. Sustainable hydraulic engineering through building with nature

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Vriend, Huib J.; van Koningsveld, M.; Aarninkhof, S.G.J.; de Vries, Mindert; Baptist, M.J.

    2015-01-01

    Hydraulic engineering infrastructures are of concern to many people and are likely to interfere with the environment. Moreover, they are supposed to keep on functioning for many years. In times of rapid societal and environmental change this implies that sustainability and adaptability are important

  20. Digital sustainability: basic conditions for sustainable digital artifacts and their ecosystems

    OpenAIRE

    Stürmer, Matthias; Abu-Tayeh, Gabriel; Myrach, Thomas

    2017-01-01

    The modern age has heralded a shift from the industrial society, in which natural resources are crucial input factors for the economy, towards a knowledge society. To date, sustainability literature has treated knowledge—and in particular digital artifacts—mainly as a means to the end of achieving sustainable development. In this conceptual paper, we argue that digital artifacts themselves ought also to be considered as resources, which also need to be sustainable. While over-consumption is a...

  1. Education for sustainable development

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Breiting, Søren

    2009-01-01

     An introduction to the idea of sustainable development (SD) and education for sustainable development (ESD) with reference to the international Decade for Education for Sustainable Development . The chapter includes a focus on conflicting interests between present and future generations related ...... to the use of natural resources and other matters, and how that kind of issues can be dealt with in education as ESD....... An introduction to the idea of sustainable development (SD) and education for sustainable development (ESD) with reference to the international Decade for Education for Sustainable Development . The chapter includes a focus on conflicting interests between present and future generations related...

  2. Sustainable Concrete Technology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sim J.

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The growing concern over global warming and significant ecological changes requires sustainable development in all fields of science and technology. Concrete not only consumes huge amount of energy and natural sources, but also emits large amount of CO2, mainly due to the production of cement. It is evident that such large amount of concrete production has put significant impact on the energy, resource, environment, and ecology of the society. Hence, how to develop the concrete technology in a sustainable way has become a significant issue. In this paper, some of Korean researches for sustainable development of concrete are presented. These are sustainable strengthening for deteriorated concrete structure, sustainable reinforcement of new concrete structure, sustainable concrete using recycled aggregate and supplementary cementing materials and finally application of each technique to precast concrete.

  3. Local perceptions as a guide for the sustainable management of natural resources: empirical evidence from a small-scale society in Bolivian Amazonia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Research on natural resource management suggests that local perceptions form the basis upon which many small-scale societies monitor availability and change in the stock of common-pool natural resources. In contrast, this literature debates whether local perceptions can be effective in guiding the sustainable management of natural resources. With empirical evidence on this matter still highly limited, we explored the role of local perceptions as drivers of harvesting and management behavior in a small-scale society in Bolivian Amazonia. We conducted structured interviews to capture local perceptions of availability and change in the stock of thatch palm (Geonoma deversa among the Tsimane', an indigenous society of foragers-horticulturalists (n = 296 adults in 13 villages. We analyzed whether perceptions of availability match estimates of abundance obtained from ecological data and whether differences in perception help to explain harvesting behavior and local management of thatch palm. Perceptions of availability of G. deversa are highly contingent upon the social, economic, and cultural conditions within which the Tsimane' have experienced changes in the availability of the resource, thus giving a better reflection of the historical, rather than of the ecological, dimensions of the changes undergone. Although local perceptions might fall short in precision when scrutinized from an ecological standpoint, their importance in informing sustainable management should not be underestimated. Our findings show that most of the harvesting and management actions that the Tsimane' undertake are, at least partially, shaped by their local perceptions. This paper contributes to the broader literature on natural resource management by providing empirical evidence of the critical role of local perceptions in promoting collective responses for the sustainable management of natural resources.

  4. The Sustainability Cycle and Loop: models for a more unified understanding of sustainability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hay, Laura; Duffy, Alex; Whitfield, R I

    2014-01-15

    In spite of the considerable research on sustainability, reports suggest that we are barely any closer to a more sustainable society. As such, there is an urgent need to improve the effectiveness of human efforts towards sustainability. A clearer and more unified understanding of sustainability among different people and sectors could help to facilitate this. This paper presents the results of an inductive literature investigation, aiming to develop models to explain the nature of sustainability in the Earth system, and how humans can effectively strive for it. The major contributions are two general and complementary models, that may be applied in any context to provide a common basis for understanding sustainability: the Sustainability Cycle (S-Cycle), and the Sustainability Loop (S-Loop). Literature spanning multiple sectors is examined from the perspective of three concepts, emerging as significant in relation to our aim. Systems are shown to provide the context for human action towards sustainability, and the nature of the Earth system and its sub-systems is explored. Activities are outlined as a fundamental target that humans need to sustain, since they produce the entities both needed and desired by society. The basic behaviour of activities operating in the Earth system is outlined. Finally, knowledge is positioned as the driver of human action towards sustainability, and the key components of knowledge involved are examined. The S-Cycle and S-Loop models are developed via a process of induction from the reviewed literature. The S-Cycle describes the operation of activities in a system from the perspective of sustainability. The sustainability of activities in a system depends upon the availability of resources, and the availability of resources depends upon the rate that activities consume and produce them. Humans may intervene in these dynamics via an iterative process of interpretation and action, described in the S-Loop model. The models are briefly

  5. Formulation and evaluation of a sustained-release tablets of metformin hydrochloride using hydrophilic synthetic and hydrophobic natural polymers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wadher, K J; Kakde, R B; Umekar, M J

    2011-03-01

    Metformin hydrochloride has relatively short plasma half-life, low absolute bioavailability. The need for the administration two to three times a day when larger doses are required can decrease patient compliance. Sustained release formulation that would maintain plasma level for 8-12 h might be sufficient for daily dosing of metformin. Sustained release products are needed for metformin to prolong its duration of action and to improve patient compliances. The overall objective of this study was to develop an oral sustained release metformin hydrochloride tablet by using hydrophilic Eudragit RSPO alone or its combination with hydrophobic natural polymers Gum copal and gum damar as rate controlling factor. The tablets were prepared by wet granulation method. The in vitro dissolution study was carried out using USP 22 apparatus I, paddle method and the data was analysed using zero order, first order, Higuchi, Korsmeyer and Hixson-Crowell equations. The drug release study revealed that Eudragit RSPO alone was unable to sustain the drug release. Combining Eudragit with gum Copal and gum Damar sustained the drug release for more than 12 h. Kinetic modeling of in vitro dissolution profiles revealed the drug release mechanism ranges from diffusion controlled or Fickian transport to anomalous type or non-Fickian transport. Fitting the in vitro drug release data to Korsmeyer equation indicated that diffusion along with erosion could be the mechanism of drug release.

  6. Sustainability of common pool resources

    OpenAIRE

    Timilsina, Raja Rajendra; Kotani, Koji; Kamijo, Yoshio

    2017-01-01

    Sustainability has become a key issue in managing natural resources together with growing concerns for capitalism, environmental and resource problems. We hypothesize that the ongoing modernization of competitive societies, which we refer to as "capitalism," affects human nature for utilizing common pool resources, thus compromising sustainability. To test this hypothesis, we design and implement a set of dynamic common pool resource games and experiments in the following two types of Nepales...

  7. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, A MULTIDIMENSIONAL CONCEPT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    TEODORESCU ANA MARIA

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Sustainable development imposed itself as a corollary of economic term "development". Sustainable development is meant to be the summation of economic, environmental and social considerations for the present and especially for the future. The concept of sustainable development plays an important role in european and global meetings since 1972, the year it has been set for the first time. Strategies necessary to achieve the objectives of sustainable development have been developed, indicators meant to indicate the result of the implementation of policies have been created, national plans were oriented towards achieving the proposed targets. I wanted to highlight the multidimensional character of the concept of sustainable development. Thus, using specialized national and international literature, I have revealed different approaches of one pillar to the detriment of another pillar depending on the specific field. In the different concepts of sustainable development, the consensus is undoubtedly agreed on its components: economic, social, environmental. Based on this fact, the concept of sustainability has different connotations depending on the specific content of each discipline: biology, economics, sociology, environmental ethics. The multidimensional valence of sustainable development consists of three pillars ability to act together for the benefit of present and future generations. Being a multidimensional concept, importance attached to a pillar over another is directed according to the particularities of each field: in economy profit prevails, in ecology care of natural resources is the most important, the social aims improving human living conditions. The challenge of sustainable development is to combine all the economic, environmental and social benefits and the present generation to come. Ecological approach is reflected in acceptance of limited natural resources by preserving natural capital. In terms of the importance of

  8. Empirical Study on Sustainable Opportunities Recognition. A Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC Joinery Industry Analysis Using Augmented Sustainable Development Process Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eduard-Gabriel Ceptureanu

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper analyzes factors influencing recognition of sustainable opportunities by using an augmented sustainability process model. The conceptual model used two main factors, Knowledge and Motivation, and one moderating variable, Social embeddedness. We investigated entrepreneurs from PVC joinery industry and concluded that while market orientation and sustainable entrepreneurial orientation definitely and positively influence sustainable opportunity recognition, others variables like knowledge of the natural/communal environment, awareness of sustainable development or focus on success have less support. Among all variables analyzed, perception of the threat of the natural/communal environment and altruism toward others have the poorest impact on opportunity recognition. Finally, we concluded that social embeddedness has a moderating effect on sustainable opportunity recognition, even though the results were mixed.

  9. Modeling Sustainable Food Systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allen, Thomas; Prosperi, Paolo

    2016-05-01

    The processes underlying environmental, economic, and social unsustainability derive in part from the food system. Building sustainable food systems has become a predominating endeavor aiming to redirect our food systems and policies towards better-adjusted goals and improved societal welfare. Food systems are complex social-ecological systems involving multiple interactions between human and natural components. Policy needs to encourage public perception of humanity and nature as interdependent and interacting. The systemic nature of these interdependencies and interactions calls for systems approaches and integrated assessment tools. Identifying and modeling the intrinsic properties of the food system that will ensure its essential outcomes are maintained or enhanced over time and across generations, will help organizations and governmental institutions to track progress towards sustainability, and set policies that encourage positive transformations. This paper proposes a conceptual model that articulates crucial vulnerability and resilience factors to global environmental and socio-economic changes, postulating specific food and nutrition security issues as priority outcomes of food systems. By acknowledging the systemic nature of sustainability, this approach allows consideration of causal factor dynamics. In a stepwise approach, a logical application is schematized for three Mediterranean countries, namely Spain, France, and Italy.

  10. Natural recharge to sustainable yield from the barind aquifer: a tool in preparing effective management plan of groundwater resources.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monirul Islam, Md; Kanungoe, P

    2005-01-01

    This paper presents the results of water balance study and aquifer simulation modeling for preliminary estimation of the recharge rate and sustainable yield for the semi arid Barind Tract region of Bangladesh. The outcomes of the study are likely to be useful for planning purposes. It is found from detailed water balance study for the area that natural recharge rates in the Barind Tract vary widely year to year. It may have resulted from the method used for the calculation. If the considered time interval had been smaller than the monthly rainfall, the results could have been different. Aquifer Simulation Modeling (ASM) for the Barind aquifer is used to estimate long-term sustainable yield of the groundwater considering limiting drawdown from the standpoint of economic pumping cost. In managing a groundwater basin efficiently and effectively, evaluation of the maximum annual groundwater yield of the basin that can be withdrawn and used without producing any undesirable effect is one of the most important issues. In investigating such recharge rate, introduction of certain terms such as sustainable yield and safe yield has been accompanied. Development of this area involves proper utilization of this vast land, which is possible only through ensured irrigation for agriculture. The Government of Bangladesh has a plan to develop irrigation facilities by optimum utilization of available ground and surface water. It is believed that the groundwater table is lowering rapidly and the whole region is in an acute state of deforestation. Indiscriminate groundwater development may accelerate deforestation trend. In this context estimation of actual natural recharge rate to the aquifer and determination of sustainable yield will assist in proper management and planning of environmentally viable abstraction schemes. It is revealed from the study that the sustainable yield of ground water (204 mm/y) is somewhat higher than the long-term annual average recharge (152.7 mm) to the

  11. Educating Professionals for Sustainable Futures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hille Janhonen-Abruquah

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The recent discourse on sustainability science calls for interdisciplinary research. The home economics science approach ranges from individual actions to the involvement of communities and societies at large, and thus it can provide important perspectives on cultural sustainability. The aim of the research is to study the linkage between cultural sustainability and service sector education to support the creation of sustainable professions. In the present small-scale empirical study, the food service degree curriculum of a Finnish vocational college and teachers’ group interview data were analyzed to find how cultural sustainability is presented in the curriculum and how it is understood by teachers and integrated into teaching practices. Previous cultural sustainability research identifies four perspectives of cultural sustainability: (1 vitality of cultural traditions; (2 economic starting point; (3 diversity together with maintenance of local culture; and (4 possible influence on the balance between human actions and environment. Findings indicate that sustainability, including cultural sustainability, is integrated in the curriculum and considered important by teachers. Translating these into practice remains a challenge. The balance between human and nature was mostly understood as recycling, use of public transport, sustainable consumption, and taking trips to the nature nearby. Cultural sustainability as a concept is not well known, although themes such as multicultural issues, equality, charity, and environmental responsibility were included in teachers’ practical lessons daily. Feasts and celebrations in learning were opportunities to view cultural sustainability widely. This paper provides a way forward for the teachers to develop further their pedagogical practices.

  12. Partitioning ecosystems for sustainability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murray, Martyn G

    2016-03-01

    Decline in the abundance of renewable natural resources (RNRs) coupled with increasing demands of an expanding human population will greatly intensify competition for Earth's natural resources during this century, yet curiously, analytical approaches to the management of productive ecosystems (ecological theory of wildlife harvesting, tragedy of the commons, green economics, and bioeconomics) give only peripheral attention to the driving influence of competition on resource exploitation. Here, I apply resource competition theory (RCT) to the exploitation of RNRs and derive four general policies in support of their sustainable and equitable use: (1) regulate resource extraction technology to avoid damage to the resource base; (2) increase efficiency of resource use and reduce waste at every step in the resource supply chain and distribution network; (3) partition ecosystems with the harvesting niche as the basic organizing principle for sustainable management of natural resources by multiple users; and (4) increase negative feedback between consumer and resource to bring about long-term sustainable use. A simple policy framework demonstrates how RCT integrates with other elements of sustainability science to better manage productive ecosystems. Several problem areas of RNR management are discussed in the light of RCT, including tragedy of the commons, overharvesting, resource collapse, bycatch, single species quotas, and simplification of ecosystems.

  13. Handbook of sustainable engineering

    CERN Document Server

    Lee, Kun-Mo

    2013-01-01

    "The efficient utilization of energy, sustainable use of natural resources, and large-scale adoption of sustainable technologies is the key to a sustainable future. The Handbook of Sustainable Engineering provides tools that will help us achieve these goals". Nobel Prize Winner Dr. R.K. Pauchauri, Chairman, UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change As global society confronts the challenges of diminishing resources, ecological degradation, and climate change, engineers play a crucial role designing and building technologies and products that fulfil our needs for utility and sustainability. The Handbook of Sustainable Engineering equips readers with the context and the best practices derived from both academic research and practical examples of successful implementations of sustainable technical solutions. The handbook’s content revolves around the two themes, new ways of thinking and new business models, including sustainable production, products, service systems and consumption while addressing key asse...

  14. Multi-Scale Governance of Sustainable Natural Resource Use—Challenges and Opportunities for Monitoring and Institutional Development at the National and Global Level

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stefan Bringezu

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available In a globalized economy, the use of natural resources is determined by the demand of modern production and consumption systems, and by infrastructure development. Sustainable natural resource use will require good governance and management based on sound scientific information, data and indicators. There is a rich literature on natural resource management, yet the national and global scale and macro-economic policy making has been underrepresented. We provide an overview of the scholarly literature on multi-scale governance of natural resources, focusing on the information required by relevant actors from local to global scale. Global natural resource use is largely determined by national, regional, and local policies. We observe that in recent decades, the development of public policies of natural resource use has been fostered by an “inspiration cycle” between the research, policy and statistics community, fostering social learning. Effective natural resource policies require adequate monitoring tools, in particular indicators for the use of materials, energy, land, and water as well as waste and GHG emissions of national economies. We summarize the state-of-the-art of the application of accounting methods and data sources for national material flow accounts and indicators, including territorial and product-life-cycle based approaches. We show how accounts on natural resource use can inform the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs and argue that information on natural resource use, and in particular footprint indicators, will be indispensable for a consistent implementation of the SDGs. We recognize that improving the knowledge base for global natural resource use will require further institutional development including at national and international levels, for which we outline options.

  15. Economic theories of sustainable consumption

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada; Bergh, van den Jeroen C.J.M.

    1999-01-01

    The term `sustainable consumption' denotes the search for consumption patterns that reduce human pressure on the environment and nature. This searchinvolves three levels of research. First, the relationship between consumption, lifestyles and environmental sustainability has to be clarified.

  16. Protected Natural Areas of Puerto Rico

    Science.gov (United States)

    William A. Gould; Maya Quinones; Mariano Solorzano; Waldemar Alcobas; Caryl Alarcon

    2011-01-01

    Protection of natural areas is essential to conserving biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem services. Benefits and services provided by natural areas are complex, interwoven, life-sustaining, and necessary for a healthy environment and a sustainable future (Daily et al. 1997). They include clean water and air, sustainable wildlife populations and habitats, stable...

  17. a randomized controlled trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MS Yıldırım

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was to compare the effects of static stretching, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF stretching and Mulligan technique on hip flexion range of motion (ROM in subjects with bilateral hamstring tightness. A total of 40 students (mean age: 21.5±1.3 years, mean body height: 172.8±8.2 cm, mean body mass index: 21.9±3.0 kg • m-2 with bilateral hamstring tightness were enrolled in this randomized trial, of whom 26 completed the study. Subjects were divided into 4 groups performing (I typical static stretching, (II PNF stretching, (III Mulligan traction straight leg raise (TSLR technique, (IV no intervention. Hip flexion ROM was measured using a digital goniometer with the passive straight leg raise test before and after 4 weeks by two physiotherapists blinded to the groups. 52 extremities of 26 subjects were analyzed. Hip flexion ROM increased in all three intervention groups (p<0.05 but not in the no-intervention group after 4 weeks. A statistically significant change in initial–final assessment differences of hip flexion ROM was found between groups (p<0.001 in favour of PNF stretching and Mulligan TSLR technique in comparison to typical static stretching (p=0.016 and p=0.02, respectively. No significant difference was found between Mulligan TSLR technique and PNF stretching (p=0.920. The initial–final assessment difference of hip flexion ROM was similar in typical static stretching and no intervention (p=0.491. A 4-week stretching intervention is beneficial for increasing hip flexion ROM in bilateral hamstring tightness. However, PNF stretching and Mulligan TSLR technique are superior to typical static stretching. These two interventions can be alternatively used for stretching in hamstring tightness.

  18. Integrating natural and social sciences to manage sustainably vectors of change in the marine environment: Dogger Bank transnational case study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burdon, Daryl; Boyes, Suzanne J.; Elliott, Michael; Smyth, Katie; Atkins, Jonathan P.; Barnes, Richard A.; Wurzel, Rüdiger K.

    2018-02-01

    The management of marine resources is a complex process driven by the dynamics of the natural system and the influence of stakeholders including policy-makers. An integration of natural and social sciences research is required by policy-makers to better understand, and manage sustainably, natural changes and anthropogenic activities within particular marine systems. Given the uncertain development of activities in the marine environment, future scenarios assessments can be used to investigate whether marine policy measures are robust and sustainable. This paper develops an interdisciplinary framework, which incorporates future scenarios assessments, and identifies four main types of evaluation needed to integrate natural and social sciences research to support the integrated management of the marine environment: environmental policy and governance assessments; ecosystem services, indicators and valuation; modelling tools for management evaluations, and risk assessment and risk management. The importance of stakeholder engagement within each evaluation method is highlighted. The paper focuses on the transnational spatial marine management of the Dogger Bank, in the central North Sea, a site which is very important ecologically, economically and politically. Current management practices are reviewed, and research tools to support future management decisions are applied and discussed in relation to two main vectors of change affecting the Dogger Bank, namely commercial fisheries and offshore wind farm developments, and in relation to the need for nature conservation. The input of local knowledge through stakeholder engagement is highlighted as a necessary requirement to produce site-specific policy recommendations for the future management of the Dogger Bank. We present wider policy recommendations to integrate natural and social sciences in a global marine context.

  19. Agriculture: Sustainability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the food, feed, and fiber needs of our country and the social, economic and other requirements.

  20. Trading Natural Riparian Forests for Urban Shelterbelt Plantations—A Sustainability Assessment of the Kökyar Protection Forest in NW China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siegmund Missall

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Cities at the fringe of the Taklimakan desert in NW China are prone to dust and sand storms with serious consequences for human well-being. The Kökyar Protection Forest was established in the 1980s as an ecological engineering project with the intent of protecting the city of Aksu, NW China, from these impacts. It is designed as a combination of poplar shelterbelts and orchards, irrigated by river water from the Aksu River, the main tributary of the Tarim River. Prevalent literature describes it as an afforestation project for combatting desertification with manifold positive effects for the economic, social, and environmental dimension of sustainable development. This paper sets out to challenge these claims by a sustainability assessment in which the plantation is examined from a broader perspective, embedding it to the wider context of social and environmental problems in South Xinjiang. Methods comprise evapotranspiration calculations, interviews, a socioeconomic household survey, stakeholder dialogues, and literature research. Results affirm its economic sustainability, but see a mixed record for the social sphere. From the nature conservation point of view, it has to be classified as unsustainable because its high irrigation water consumption results in the downstream desiccation and desertification of natural riparian forests along the Tarim River, causing a forest loss in the downstream area twice the size of the forest gain in the upstream area. There is a trade-off between artificial shelterbelt plantations for urban ecosystem services on the one hand side, and natural riparian forests and their biodiversity on the other hand side. The paper recommends restricting agricultural extension, and using locally adapted less water consuming agroforestry schemes to protect urban dwellers from dust stress.

  1. Innovations for Natural Resource Management

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    First page Back Continue Last page Graphics. Improving input use efficiency and sustainable management of natural resource endowments - a continuous challenge. Improving input use efficiency and sustainable management of natural resource endowments - a continuous challenge. Innovations have focused on ...

  2. Natural Gas Hydrate as a Storage Mechanism for Safe, Sustainable and Economical Production from Offshore Petroleum Reserves

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael T. Kezirian

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Century Fathom presents an innovative process to utilize clathrate hydrates for the production, storage and transportation of natural gas from off-shore energy reserves in deep ocean environments. The production scheme was developed by considering the preferred state of natural gas in the deep ocean and addressing the hazards associated with conventional techniques to transport natural gas. It also is designed to mitigate the significant shipping cost inherent with all methods. The resulting proposed scheme restrains transport in the hydrate form to the ocean and does not attempt to supply energy to the residential consumer. Instead; the target recipients are industrial operations. The resulting operational concept is intrinsically safer by design; environmentally sustainable and significantly cost-effective compared with currently proposed schemes for the use of natural gas hydrates and has the potential to be the optimal solution for new production of reserves; depending on the distance to shore and capacity of the petroleum reserve. A potential additional benefit is the byproduct of desalinated water.

  3. A holistic perspective on corporate sustainability drivers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lozano, R.

    2013-01-01

    Since company boards are increasingly discussing 'sustainability', it becomes necessary to examine the nature of sustainability drivers. Most approaches to corporate sustainability drivers have focused either on internal or external drivers. This paper is aimed at providing a more holistic

  4. A holistic perspective on corporate sustainability drivers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lozano, Rodrigo|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/36412380X

    2015-01-01

    Since company boards are increasingly discussing 'sustainability', it becomes necessary to examine the nature of sustainability drivers. Most approaches to corporate sustainability drivers have focused either on internal or external drivers. This paper is aimed at providing a more holistic

  5. The inner dimension of sustainability

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Horlings, L.G.

    2015-01-01

    Transformation to sustainability has been defined as the fundamental alteration of the nature of a system, once the current conditions become untenable or undesirable. Transformation requires a shift in people's values, referred to as the inner dimension of sustainability, or change from the

  6. Sustainable agriculture in the picture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brouwer, F.M.; De Bont, C.J.A.M.; Leneman, H.; Van der Meulen, H.A.B.

    2004-01-01

    Sustainable agriculture in the picture provides a systematic overview of the available data that are relevant for debate on transitions towards sustainable agriculture. Review for the agrocomplex, greenhouse horticulture, dairy farming and pig farming. Indicators on economy, environment, nature, animal welfare, human and animal health. Results achieved in practice for the three dimensions of sustainable agriculture, namely economics ('profit'), ecology ('planet') and socio-cultural ('people') [nl

  7. Local Sustainability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carrizosa Umana, Julio

    1998-01-01

    The current polemic about the possibilities of sustainable development has led to a renovated interest for the topic of the sustainability of the communities and the local sustainability. In front of the global sustainability whose conditions have been exposed by systemic ecologists and for macro economists, the sustainability of specific places arises in the planet whose conditions are object of study of the ecology of landscapes, of the ecological economy, of the cultural anthropology, of the environmental sociology and naturally, of the integral environmentalism. In this discussion the Colombian case charges unusual interest to be one of the few countries of Latin America, where a very dense net of municipalities exists, each one with its urban helmet and with a position and some functions defined by the political constitution of the nation. This net of municipalities and of urban helmets it also constitutes net of alternative to the current macro-cephalic situation. As well as Bogota grew, in a hundred years, of less than a hundred thousand inhabitants to six million inhabitants, each one of these municipalities contains a potential of growth that depends on the characteristics of its ecological, social, economic and politic sustainability

  8. SUSTAINABLE TRAILER FLOORING

    OpenAIRE

    John Lu; Marc Chorney; Lowell Peterson

    2009-01-01

    Different trailer flooring materials, including wood-based, aluminum, steel, and synthetic plastic floors, were evaluated in accordance with their durability and sustainability to our natural environment. Wood-based trailer flooring is an eco-friendly product. It is the most sustainable trailer flooring material compared with fossil fuel-intensive steel, aluminum, and plastics. It is renewable and recyclable. Oak, hard maple, and apitong are strong and durable hardwood species that are curren...

  9. Sustainable pest regulation in agricultural landscapes: a review on landscape composition, biodiversity and natural pest control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bianchi, F J J A; Booij, C J H; Tscharntke, T

    2006-07-22

    Agricultural intensification has resulted in a simplification of agricultural landscapes by the expansion of agricultural land, enlargement of field size and removal of non-crop habitat. These changes are considered to be an important cause of the rapid decline in farmland biodiversity, with the remaining biodiversity concentrated in field edges and non-crop habitats. The simplification of landscape composition and the decline of biodiversity may affect the functioning of natural pest control because non-crop habitats provide requisites for a broad spectrum of natural enemies, and the exchange of natural enemies between crop and non-crop habitats is likely to be diminished in landscapes dominated by arable cropland. In this review, we test the hypothesis that natural pest control is enhanced in complex patchy landscapes with a high proportion of non-crop habitats as compared to simple large-scale landscapes with little associated non-crop habitat. In 74% and 45% of the studies reviewed, respectively, natural enemy populations were higher and pest pressure lower in complex landscapes versus simple landscapes. Landscape-driven pest suppression may result in lower crop injury, although this has rarely been documented. Enhanced natural enemy activity was associated with herbaceous habitats in 80% of the cases (e.g. fallows, field margins), and somewhat less often with wooded habitats (71%) and landscape patchiness (70%). The similar contributions of these landscape factors suggest that all are equally important in enhancing natural enemy populations. We conclude that diversified landscapes hold most potential for the conservation of biodiversity and sustaining the pest control function.

  10. Surface modified natural zeolite as a carrier for sustained diclofenac release: A preliminary feasibility study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Gennaro, Bruno; Catalanotti, Lilia; Cappelletti, Piergiulio; Langella, Alessio; Mercurio, Mariano; Serri, Carla; Biondi, Marco; Mayol, Laura

    2015-06-01

    In view of zeolite potentiality as a carrier for sustained drug release, a clinoptilolite-rich rock from California (CLI_CA) was superficially modified with cetylpyridinium chloride and loaded with diclofenac sodium (DS). The obtained surface modified natural zeolites (SMNZ) were characterized by confocal scanning laser microscopy (CLSM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRPD) and laser light scattering (LS). Their flowability properties, drug adsorption and in vitro release kinetics in simulated intestinal fluid (SIF) were also investigated. CLI_CA is a Na- and K-rich clinoptilolite with a cationic exchange ability that fits well with its zeolite content (clinoptilolite=80 wt%); the external cationic exchange capacity is independent of the cationic surfactant used. LS and CLSM analyses have shown a wide distribution of volume diameters of SMNZ particles that, along with their irregular shape, make them cohesive with scarce flow properties. CLSM observation has revealed the localization of different molecules in/on SMNZ by virtue of their chemical nature. In particular, cationic and polar probes prevalently localize in SMNZ bulk, whereas anionic probes preferentially arrange themselves on SMNZ surface and the loading of a nonpolar molecule in/on SMNZ is discouraged. The adsorption rate of DS onto SMNZ was shown by different kinetic models highlighting the fact that DS adsorption is a pseudo-second order reaction and that the diffusion through the boundary layer is the rate-controlling step of the process. DS release in an ionic medium, such as SIF, can be sustained for about 5h through a mechanism prevalently governed by anionic exchange with a rapid final phase. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Ecotourism – model of sustainable tourist development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mirela Stefanica

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available In the last years, the tendency in the tourism industry was that of return towards nature and towards the authentic cultural values. Among all the forms of tourism, ecotourism distinguishes itself through the strongest connection with the natural and cultural environment, representing the most valuable form of manifestation of sustainable tourism, with the fastest growth rhythm worldwide. Integrated in the sustainable development, ecotourism involves activities that directly contribute to the nature protection and to keeping the old human creations unaltered.

  12. Sustainable Drainage, Green Infrastructure or Natural Flood Management - which should you choose?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wingfield, Thea; Potter, Karen; Jones, Gareth; Spees, Jack; Macdonald, Neil

    2016-04-01

    River catchments as management units are more effective than administrative boundaries to integrate and coordinate efforts of organisations that utilise and manage water, soil and habitat quality. The UK government announced a pilot integrated water management initiative called, 'The Catchment Based Approach', on World Water Day 2011. After successful trials the scheme was extended to all river catchments in England during the summer of 2013. This policy has been designed to improve the collaboration, partnership and coordination of organisations involved in water and land management through locally led partnership groups. The lead organisations are all charitable bodies with significantly varying levels of experience of stormwater management; a key component of integrated water management and of great concern to communities at risk. These partnerships have implemented a number of Nature Based Solutions, but these have been presented in different ways by the different groups. In the UK there are three terms commonly used to describe Nature Based Solutions for managing the drainage of stormwater: Sustainable Drainage (SuDS), Green Infrastructure (GI) and Natural Flood Management (NFM). The definitions of each refers to the replication of natural hydrological processes in order to slow the flow of water through the landscape. But, there has been some concerns as to which of these nature based terms should be applied and why they appear to be used interchangeably. This study demonstrates that, despite the definitions of these three terms being almost identical, in practice they are not the same and should not be used interchangeably. The terms were developed by different professional groups in response to their own objectives and histories. The hydrological processes used to manage storm-water may be the same and the suggested interventions may show a degree of convergence. Yet, they operate at different scales, both geographically and organisationally. The different

  13. SUSTAINABLE TRAILER FLOORING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Lu

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available Different trailer flooring materials, including wood-based, aluminum, steel, and synthetic plastic floors, were evaluated in accordance with their durability and sustainability to our natural environment. Wood-based trailer flooring is an eco-friendly product. It is the most sustainable trailer flooring material compared with fossil fuel-intensive steel, aluminum, and plastics. It is renewable and recyclable. Oak, hard maple, and apitong are strong and durable hardwood species that are currently extensively used for trailer flooring. For manufacture, wood-based flooring is higher in energy efficiency and lower in carbon emission than steel, aluminum and plastics. Moreover, wood per se is a natural product that sequesters carbon. Accordingly, using more wood-based trailer flooring is effective to reduce global warming.

  14. Application of natural seaweed modified mortar for sustainable concrete production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siddique, M. N. I.; Zularisam, A. W.

    2018-04-01

    The effect of seaweed such as Eucheuma Cottonii (gel) and Gracilaria Sp. modified mortar on the properties of sustainable concrete was investigated. Pre-experiment and main-experiment was conducted to carry out this study. Pre-experiment was conducted to study the compressive strength of the sustainable concrete. The main-experiment studied the compressive and splitting strength. Results showed that seaweed modified mortar yielded satisfactory compressive and splitting strength of 30 MPa and 5 MPa at 28 days.

  15. How to access and exploit natural resources sustainably: petroleum biotechnology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sherry, Angela; Andrade, Luiza; Velenturf, Anne; Christgen, Beate; Gray, Neil D; Head, Ian M

    2017-09-01

    As we transition from fossil fuel reliance to a new energy future, innovative microbial biotechnologies may offer new routes to maximize recovery from conventional and unconventional energy assets; as well as contributing to reduced emission pathways and new technologies for carbon capture and utilization. Here we discuss the role of microbiology in petroleum biotechnologies in relation to addressing UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 (ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns), with a focus on microbially-mediated energy recovery from unconventionals (heavy oil to methane), shale gas and fracking, bioelectrochemical systems for the production of electricity from fossil fuel resources, and innovations in synthetic biology. Furthermore, using wastes to support a more sustainable approach to fossil fuel extraction processes is considered as we undertake the move towards a more circular global economy. © 2017 The Authors. Microbial Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for Applied Microbiology.

  16. Masseter muscle fatigue during sustained clenching in subjects with complete dentures, implant-supported prostheses, and natural teeth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacobs, R; van Steenberghe, D

    1993-03-01

    A sustained submaximal (50%) clenching effort was performed in four patient groups to establish whether implant-supported prosthetic reconstructions influence myoelectrical signal parameters. The first group consisted of patients with natural teeth in both jaws. The other three groups consisted of patients who were edentulous in both jaws: one group had complete dentures; one had an overdenture in the mandible on two implants connected by a bar; and the third had an implant-supported fixed prosthesis in either the maxilla or the mandible. Surface electromyography indicated an increased myoelectrical output level that paralleled a higher bite force level for implant-supported reconstructions compared with complete dentures. Power spectrum analysis revealed a downward shift of the mean power frequency during sustained clenching in all groups except the implant-supported fixed prosthesis. The absence of a spectral shift in the latter group probably reflected a fear of biting too hard and fracturing the prosthesis.

  17. Multi-stakeholder initiatives in sustainable supply chains: Putting sustainability performance in context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cory Searcy

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to explore the role of multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs in sustainable supply chains. I argue that MSIs are needed to help establish and institutionalize the natural and social thresholds in which a sustainable supply chain must operate. While a multitude of MSIs relevant to supply chains already exist, they do not yet adequately address sustainability thresholds. Building on theory and literature, I elaborate on four interrelated roles for MSIs in this area: (1 providing learning platforms, (2 developing standards, (3 developing enforcement mechanisms, and (4 issuing labels and certifications. All four roles emphasize the need for supply chains to operate within the thresholds set by nature and society. Staying within thresholds is what distinguishes between sustainable and unsustainable supply chains. The four roles form part of a broader conceptual framework outlining a way forward for MSIs in sustainable supply chains. Different MSIs could address one or more of these roles. I argue that all MSIs must be developed with special attention to their input and output legitimacy. Stakeholders from both within and beyond the supply chain must be involved in developing and implementing a MSI for it to be viewed as legitimate. I note that the conceptual framework presented here is a starting point. It would benefit from further testing and refinement. For example, future work could add further specificity to the four roles I discuss. Future research could also focus on integrating economic thresholds for sustainable supply chains into the framework.

  18. How the sustainable livelihoods framework can contribute towards sustainable social development: where are we going?

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Murambadoro, M

    2009-08-01

    Full Text Available The South African constitution seeks to secure ecological sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development. It is important to understand how society makes use of natural resources...

  19. Impacts of Embankment System on Natural Wetlands and Sustainable Water Resources Development in the Northwest Region of Bangladesh

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pervin, M.; Rahman, M. A.

    2012-12-01

    In the Northwest region of Bangladesh, the Chalan Beel is one of the largest Beel ("Beel" refers to natural wetland) in Bangladesh. Polder C (an area surrounded by embankment) of Chalan Beel area consists of 50% natural wetland of the region. Historically, the area was rich with fish, flora and fauna, and agricultural resources. Both flood and drainage congestion have been identified as major problems existing in the project area. Farmers are badly affected by the sudden onrush of floodwater through the embankment breaches, public cuts and incomplete hydraulic structures during the rainy season. The floodwater damages B. Aman and late Boro paddy by 10% and washes away housing settlements. Sometimes water gets scarce in polder C in dry season that is unfavorable for the crop. Loss of crops and fishery affects the economy strongly. The polder was not according to master plan and with lack of operation and maintenance. Instead of improving the livelihood in the study area the embankment arises detrimental effect on the people. This paper focuses mainly the impact of the embankments on hydrology, fishery, agriculture and socio-economic condition in polder C at Chalan Beel area. Present conditions are compared with the natural conditions existed in the last decades. Finally, the paper gives some recommendations for further sustainable water resources management. It is estimated that the natural wetland loss is about 10%. The analysis shows that the river or channel cross-sections are reduced by ca. 2 m and water level is increasing with time in the rivers along the polder due to confinement effect and siltation. It appears from the study that due to this confinement effect and siltation effect, flood and drainage problems are increasing and consequently, the area is affected in every year to a great extent. At present, cross sections of natural canals are not working properly and back water flow from Hurasagar River creates drainage congestion. About 20% of fish

  20. THE TRILATERAL RELATIONSHIP ECOTOURISM – SUSTAINABLE TOURISM – SLOW TRAVEL AMONG NATURE IN THE LINE WITH AUTHENTIC TOURISM LOVERS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Roxana DOROBANŢU

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available There is now an increasing trend of mundane and fashionable world to live together in with the environment, to spend more time in nature, to be closer to all that is unpolluted, peaceful and less known. Tourists requiring nature holidays in rural areas are becoming more and more. Ecotourism in the countryside or in the full nature is increasingly desired by people who live in urban areas with a high financial situation, but stressed out, eager to return to the nature, to the life in rural communities. Ecotourism, sustainable tourism and slow travel- all this forms of tourism have common points in terms of quality of time spent by tourists on holiday and allow them to appreciate a holiday spent far more profound, enabling them to return to long forgotten places and traditions, especially for tourists who come from highly developed countries or in those areas where they only partially preserved traditions and customs, living conditions.

  1. Effect of fibular repositioning taping in adult basketball players with chronic ankle instability: a randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alves, Yanina; Ribeiro, Fernando; Silva, Anabela G

    2017-07-05

    Chronic ankle instability presents a high incidence and prevalence in basketbal players. It's important to develop strategies to reduce the functional and mechanical limitations resulting from this condition. To compare the effect of Mulligan ́s fibular repositioning taping with a placebo taping immediatly after application and after a running test (Yo-Yo IRT). 16 adult basketball players (10 male, 6 female) with chronic ankle instability and mean age 21.50 ± 2.76 years old. Assessment of static postural control (15 seconds of unipedal stance test with eyes closed in a force platform), functional performance (figure 8 hop test and lateral hop test) and neuromuscular control (peroneus longus latency time in sudden inversion) in two conditions: Mulligan and Placebo. No significant effect was found for the intervantion factor in both hop tests (p>0.170), but there was a significant effect for the time factor (p<0.03). For the peroneus longus latency time, there was a significant interaction between factors (p=0.028) and also for time (p=0.042). No significant effect was found for any of the static postural control variables (area, speed and total displacement) (p≥0.10). There was no differences between Mulligan's fibular repositioning taping and Placebo taping in postural control and functional performance in basketball players with chronic ankle instability. However, Mulligan's taping appears to reduce peroneus longus latency time after a running when compared with a placebo taping.

  2. Corporate Sustainability Management and Environmental Ethics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schuler, Douglas; Rasche, Andreas; Etzion, Dror

    2017-01-01

    This article reviews four key orientations in environmental ethics that range from an instrumental understanding of sustainability to one that acknowledges the intrinsic value of sustainable behavior (i.e., sustainable resource use, conservation and preservation, rights-based perspectives, and deep...... ecology). It then shows that the current scholarly discourse around corporate sustainability management—as reflected in environment management (EM), corporate social responsibility (CSR), and corporate political activity (CPA)—mostly favors an instrumental perspective on sustainability. Sustainable...... business practices are viewed as anthropocentric and are conceptualized as a means to achieve competitive advantage. Based on these observations, we speculate about what corporate sustainability management might look like if it applied ethical orientations that emphasize the intrinsic value of nature...

  3. Engineering and Sustainability: Attitudes and Actions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marc A. Rosen

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The results of an extensive survey of engineers and engineering students suggest there is a strong focus on the implementation of sustainability concepts, actions and measures in engineering. The main sustainable technology priorities are using less energy and natural resources, reducing emissions and material wastes, and utilizing renewable, recyclable and recycled materials. Sustainable engineering within organizations is mainly driven by regulatory requirements, rising energy costs and client demand, but challenges to sustainable engineering like economics need to be addressed to increase the incorporation of sustainability in engineering. Nonetheless, about two-thirds of practicing engineers have worked on sustainable products and processes, and over half of engineering students are involved with sustainable design in their studies.

  4. Lake Naivasha Sustainability : Ecosystem Improvement for Health ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Lake Naivasha Sustainability : Ecosystem Improvement for Health and ... The overall goal is to make recommendations for the sustainable management of natural ... to improve livestock vaccine development and production to benefit farmers ...

  5. Sustainable development and the nature of environmental legal ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    2. What is the exact difference between a principle and a legal rule, and between a principle and a policy? 3. What is the relationship between a principle and more concrete legal rules and policies? It is argued that principles of environmental law receive their high moral value from the ideal of sustainable development.

  6. Use of natural resources for sustainable roads

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Paige-Green, P

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available but became an essential component of most projects worldwide only in the late 1980’s (and in South Africa in the early 1990s (Paige-Green et al, 1991)) following the Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission...) in 1987 and the declaration at the “Rio de Janiero Earth Summit” (UN Agenda 21) in 1992 with implementation of Agenda 21 being reaffirmed at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. The early Environmental Impact Assessment...

  7. Teaching sustainable design

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cooper, P.; Haggard, K.; Knuckles, A.; Le Noble, J. [California Polytechnic State Univ., San Luis Obispo, CA (United States)

    1995-11-01

    Sustainable design is inclusive, holistic and integrative. It require humility and guts, caring and a certain degree of stubbornness. It helps to do it cooperatively in a group. Human interest in sustainability has gained a great deal of impetus over the last several years as the problems of the late 20th and the early 21st century have become clearer. Design for sustainability broadens and integrates many previously separate design concerns to create a unified approach that is both compelling and ripe with new possibilities. Ecosystem regeneration, ecological land use planning, biometric design, regional environmental and economic viability, natural landscape maintenance, resource optimization, integrated infrastructure system, neotraditional and pedestrian oriented urban design, passive solar architecture, appropriate technology, renewable building materials, healthy buildings, and the aesthetics of place; are a few of these design concerns that, when welded together, can create sustainability.

  8. Can Nature Protection be Unsustainable? Models Behind Nature Protection in New Zealands National Parks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hauhs, Michael; Bogner, Christina

    2013-04-01

    Nature protection can be justified by intrinsic values of life. Western culture sees nature as an autonomous system. Thus, nature protection is often synonymous with refraining from human interference as much as possible. This, however, can pose at least technical problems. Indeed, historical human impacts such as introduced species are often irreversible. In such cases refraining from human interference to protect threatened species is not an adequate management response. Nature protection in New Zealand is a prominent example. Many introduced species make a non-interventionist attitude infeasible to protect endemic species such as kiwis. Actually, active human interference is necessary to attain this goal. Therefore, one may consider nature protection as another form of land use. As any other form of land use, it needs standards of proper management (i.e. explicit goals, assessment, intervention etc.). In other words, it has to be shown to be sustainable. However, sustainability may rigorously be defined as an attribute of past land use only. Instantaneous positive indicators of sustainability may be elusive. At best it can be decided by observation whether or not a land use has been (not) sustainable until now. Stakeholders of nature protection have often different (implicit) concepts or models of nature in mind. This can lead to conflicts when it comes to management decisions. For example, the methods by which conservationists in New Zealand seek to re-establish historical species assemblages (e.g. aerial drop of poison into national parks) have come under criticism of animal rights groups as non-humane. We propose to use abstract modelling language to classify these concepts of nature protection and related issues. We show that from modelling perspective these conflicts pose a basic science problem rather than an applied science problem. This makes the delegation into existing disciplines so hard. We discuss possible implications for nature protection

  9. Benchmarking Sustainability Practices Use throughout Industrial Construction Project Delivery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sungmin Yun

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Despite the efforts for sustainability studies in building and infrastructure construction, the sustainability issues in industrial construction remain understudied. Further, few studies evaluate sustainability and benchmark sustainability issues in industrial construction from a management perspective. This study presents a phase-based benchmarking framework for evaluating sustainability practices use focusing on industrial facilities project. Based on the framework, this study quantifies and assesses sustainability practices use, and further sorts the results by project phase and major project characteristics, including project type, project nature, and project delivery method. The results show that sustainability practices were implemented higher in the construction and startup phases relative to other phases, with a very broad range. An assessment by project type and project nature showed significant differences in sustainability practices use, but no significant difference in practices use by project delivery method. This study contributes to providing a benchmarking method for sustainability practices in industrial facilities projects at the project phase level. This study also discusses and provides an application of phase-based benchmarking for sustainability in industrial construction.

  10. Sustainable Agriculture and Nature Values

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hald, A. B.

    * Kun en meget lille del af Danmarks areal er autentisk natur, beskyttet af Naturbeskyttelsesloven - og dette areal bliver stadig mindre på grund af lovens mulighed for at dispensere til at ændre eller nedlægge områder. Dertil kommer, at kvaliteten af de tilbageværende arealer er under stadig for...

  11. Sustainable local development in citizen and community spheres. Implications for the governance of natural resources

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Javier Carreón Guillén

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The economic, political, citizen, and community spheres, whether global or local, are regulated by systems of governance, which create public interest agendas including tariffs for public services derived from the use of natural resources. In this regard, this paper presents the agreements and disagreements between entrepreneurial, municipal, citizen, and community organizations to establish local development scenarios in reference to the global market. This discussion will create a series of representations that symbolize the dissonance between prosperity and austerity in order to contrast lifestyles oriented towards globalization and livelihoods aimed at sustainability. In this context, different identities have emerged from the alliances between civil and business organizations, in which development is not necessarily a priority; however, such vicissitudes provide central themes for the discussion of economic models.  This paper is important because it envisages a governance scheme that permits including natural resources in the civil, political, and business agenda.  In other words, governance regulates the intrusion of transnational corporations in communities and the inclusion of SMEs in the international market.

  12. Politics of Sustainability in the Arctic

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gad, Ulrik Pram; Jakobsen, Uffe; Strandsbjerg, Jeppe

    2017-01-01

    The concept of sustainability has become central in arctic politics. However, there is little agreement on what ‘sustainable’ means. For different actors (governments, indigenous people, NGOs, etc.) the concept implies different sets of opportunities and precautions. Sustainability, therefore...... the role of sustainability in political and economic strategies in the Arctic. Sustainability has become a fundamental concept that orders the relationship between the environment (nature) and development (economy), however, in the process rearticulating other concepts such as identity (society). Hence, we...... to outline an agenda for how to study the way in which sustainability works as a political concept....

  13. The challenge of sustainability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Orr, D.W.

    1993-01-01

    This paper discusses sustainability in a world that has changed rapidly. The author suggests that ecological assumptions embedded in communism and capitalism are badly flawed, but the flaws were not apparent when there were fewer than a billion people on earth living at low technology levels. Sustaining the earth's vital signs is a challenge to our perception of time, and the numbers - population, environmental damage, oil consumption, waste disposal - are too large to comprehend easily. There is a global debate about what sustainability means. In fact the challenge of sustainability is 6 different challenges: overcoming the tendency to deny inconvenient realities; establishing accurate indicators of human and ecological health; questions about the kinds of technology necessary to make the transition to sustainability; education; the need for an emotional bond between man and nature; rebuilding the existing democratic institutions. 16 refs

  14. Sustainable development education, practice, and research: an indigenous model of sustainable development at the College of Menominee Nation, Keshena, WI, USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michael J. Dockry; Katherine Hall; William Van Lopik; Christopher M. Caldwell

    2015-01-01

    The College of Menominee Nation Sustainable Development Institute's theoretical model (SDI model) conceptualizes sustainable development as the process of maintaining the balance and reconciling the inherent tensions among six dimensions of sustainability: land and sovereignty; natural environment #including human beings); institutions; technology; economy; and...

  15. Assessing the contribution of Community-Based Natural Resources ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Adisa, B.O.

    2013-09-20

    Sep 20, 2013 ... environmental sustainability in Ondo State, Nigeria. Adisa, Banji O. ... Key words: Assessment, community-based, natural resources, socio-environmental sustainability, ... Natural resources occur within environments that are.

  16. Sustainable materials for low carbon buildings

    OpenAIRE

    B.V. Venkatarama Reddy

    2009-01-01

    This paper focuses on certain issues pertaining to energy, carbon emissions and sustainability of building construction with particular reference to the Indian construction industry. Use of sustainable natural materials in the past, related durability issues, and the implications of currently used energy-intensive materials on carbon emissions and sustainability are discussed. Some statistics on the Indian construction sector regarding materials produced in bulk quantities and the energy impl...

  17. A code of mines for the sustainable development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gonzalez Serna, Carmen Lucia

    2000-01-01

    In accordance with the article 80 of the political constitution of Colombia, the state will plan the handling and use of the natural resources, to guarantee its sustainable development, its conservation, restoration or substitution. When developing this constitutional norm for the renewable natural resources, the law 99 of 1993 in their first article determined that the process of economic and social development of the country will be guided according to the universal principles and of the sustainable development, contents in the declaration of Rio de Janeiro of June of 1992 on environment and development and in the third article defined the concept of sustainable development as that that drives to the economic growth, to the elevation of the quality of life and the social well-being, without draining the base of renewable natural resources in that it is sustained. The author includes antecedents, modification to the mining and law legislation among others

  18. THE CORRELATION BETWEEN SUSTAINABLE PERFORMANCE MEASURES AND ORGANIZATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY IN THE BRAZILIAN CONTEXT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    RODRIGO GOYANNES GUSMÃO CAIADO

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Over the past few years, issues of sustainability are gaining greater prominence among organizations and their stakeholders around the world and with it the effective measurement of environmental performance has been a challenge for sustainable transition. The purpose of the article is to analyse, through the the perception of market experts and researchers, what sustainable performance measures have stronger positive correlation to achieve organizational sustainability in order to help employees in making decisions that reduce the consumption of resources and that create value throughout its chain. The research is of an exploratory and descriptive nature, with qualitative and quantitative method and has a deductive logic. It aims to help professionals and academics who want to start the measurement and continuous improvement of economic, environmental, social, governance and technical performance of their organizations. Finally, the analyzes allow direct efforts to sustainable measures considered most important, allowing the transition of the organization for sustainability.

  19. Sustainability of common pool resources.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Timilsina, Raja Rajendra; Kotani, Koji; Kamijo, Yoshio

    2017-01-01

    Sustainability has become a key issue in managing natural resources together with growing concerns for capitalism, environmental and resource problems. We hypothesize that the ongoing modernization of competitive societies, which we refer to as "capitalism," affects human nature for utilizing common pool resources, thus compromising sustainability. To test this hypothesis, we design and implement a set of dynamic common pool resource games and experiments in the following two types of Nepalese areas: (i) rural (non-capitalistic) and (ii) urban (capitalistic) areas. We find that a proportion of prosocial individuals in urban areas is lower than that in rural areas, and urban residents deplete resources more quickly than rural residents. The composition of proself and prosocial individuals in a group and the degree of capitalism are crucial in that an increase in prosocial members in a group and the rural dummy positively affect resource sustainability by 65% and 63%, respectively. Overall, this paper shows that when societies move toward more capitalistic environments, the sustainability of common pool resources tends to decrease with the changes in individual preferences, social norms, customs and views to others through human interactions. This result implies that individuals may be losing their coordination abilities for social dilemmas of resource sustainability in capitalistic societies.

  20. Institutionalizing Sustainability into the Total Army

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-03-14

    IKEA have adopted the Natural Step and have become more sustainable (hence more profitable) as a result. These companies have completely re-thought...The history of the Army’s sustainability efforts began in June 2000, when the Senior Readiness Oversight Council (SROC) convened to assess challenges

  1. Language related differences of the sustained response evoked by natural speech sounds.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christina Siu-Dschu Fan

    Full Text Available In tonal languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, the pitch contour of vowels discriminates lexical meaning, which is not the case in non-tonal languages such as German. Recent data provide evidence that pitch processing is influenced by language experience. However, there are still many open questions concerning the representation of such phonological and language-related differences at the level of the auditory cortex (AC. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG, we recorded transient and sustained auditory evoked fields (AEF in native Chinese and German speakers to investigate language related phonological and semantic aspects in the processing of acoustic stimuli. AEF were elicited by spoken meaningful and meaningless syllables, by vowels, and by a French horn tone. Speech sounds were recorded from a native speaker and showed frequency-modulations according to the pitch-contours of Mandarin. The sustained field (SF evoked by natural speech signals was significantly larger for Chinese than for German listeners. In contrast, the SF elicited by a horn tone was not significantly different between groups. Furthermore, the SF of Chinese subjects was larger when evoked by meaningful syllables compared to meaningless ones, but there was no significant difference regarding whether vowels were part of the Chinese phonological system or not. Moreover, the N100m gave subtle but clear evidence that for Chinese listeners other factors than purely physical properties play a role in processing meaningful signals. These findings show that the N100 and the SF generated in Heschl's gyrus are influenced by language experience, which suggests that AC activity related to specific pitch contours of vowels is influenced in a top-down fashion by higher, language related areas. Such interactions are in line with anatomical findings and neuroimaging data, as well as with the dual-stream model of language of Hickok and Poeppel that highlights the close and reciprocal interaction

  2. Language related differences of the sustained response evoked by natural speech sounds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Christina Siu-Dschu; Zhu, Xingyu; Dosch, Hans Günter; von Stutterheim, Christiane; Rupp, André

    2017-01-01

    In tonal languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, the pitch contour of vowels discriminates lexical meaning, which is not the case in non-tonal languages such as German. Recent data provide evidence that pitch processing is influenced by language experience. However, there are still many open questions concerning the representation of such phonological and language-related differences at the level of the auditory cortex (AC). Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we recorded transient and sustained auditory evoked fields (AEF) in native Chinese and German speakers to investigate language related phonological and semantic aspects in the processing of acoustic stimuli. AEF were elicited by spoken meaningful and meaningless syllables, by vowels, and by a French horn tone. Speech sounds were recorded from a native speaker and showed frequency-modulations according to the pitch-contours of Mandarin. The sustained field (SF) evoked by natural speech signals was significantly larger for Chinese than for German listeners. In contrast, the SF elicited by a horn tone was not significantly different between groups. Furthermore, the SF of Chinese subjects was larger when evoked by meaningful syllables compared to meaningless ones, but there was no significant difference regarding whether vowels were part of the Chinese phonological system or not. Moreover, the N100m gave subtle but clear evidence that for Chinese listeners other factors than purely physical properties play a role in processing meaningful signals. These findings show that the N100 and the SF generated in Heschl's gyrus are influenced by language experience, which suggests that AC activity related to specific pitch contours of vowels is influenced in a top-down fashion by higher, language related areas. Such interactions are in line with anatomical findings and neuroimaging data, as well as with the dual-stream model of language of Hickok and Poeppel that highlights the close and reciprocal interaction between

  3. Developing Headquarters Guidance for Army Installation Sustainability Plans in 2007

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-01-01

    references that includes Dancing with the Tiger : Learning Sustainability Step by Natural Step,8 Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution...Air Quality Standards for carbon monoxide and coarse particulate matter Seattle Childhood asthma hospitalizations Seattle 102 Developing...September 9, 2007: http://web.uccs.edu/ccps Nattrass, Brian, and Mary Altomare, Dancing with the Tiger : Learning Sustainability Step by Natural

  4. Natural Disasters, Economic Growth and Sustainable Development in China―An Empirical Study Using Provincial Panel Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ji Guo

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Using a newly developed integrated indicator system with entropy weighting, we analyzed the panel data of 577 recorded disasters in 30 provinces of China from 1985–2011 to identify their links with the subsequent economic growth. Meteorological disasters promote economic growth through human capital instead of physical capital. Geological disasters did not trigger local economic growth from 1999–2011. Generally, natural disasters overall had no significant impact on economic growth from 1985–1998. Thus, human capital reinvestment should be the aim in managing recoveries, and it should be used to regenerate the local economy based on long-term sustainable development.

  5. Sustainable building assessment tool: integrating sustainability into current design and building processes

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Gibberd, Jeremy T

    2008-09-01

    Full Text Available the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems. ( International Union for Conservation of Nature 1991) These definitions focus on what Wackernagel and Yount call the “socio-economic” and “ecological imperatives” of sustainability (Wackernagel et al, 2000.... Figure 1 Human development and ecological footprints 2003 (from the Living Planet Report) The figure is interesting in that it suggest that only one country (in Latin America and the Caribbean) meets the minimum criteria for sustainability...

  6. Comparing the sustainability impacts of solar thermal and natural gas combined cycle for electricity production in Mexico: Accounting for decision makers' priorities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodríguez-Serrano, Irene; Caldés, Natalia; Oltra, Christian; Sala, Roser

    2017-06-01

    The aim of this paper is to conduct a comprehensive sustainability assessment of the electricity generation with two alternative electricity generation technologies by estimating its economic, environmental and social impacts through the "Framework for Integrated Sustainability Assessment" (FISA). Based on a Multiregional Input Output (MRIO) model linked to a social risk database (Social Hotspot Database), the framework accounts for up to fifteen impacts across the three sustainability pillars along the supply chain of the electricity production from Solar Thermal Electricity (STE) and Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) technologies in Mexico. Except for value creation, results show larger negative impacts for NGCC, particularly in the environmental pillar. Next, these impacts are transformed into "Aggregated Sustainability Endpoints" (ASE points) as a way to support the decision making in selecting the best sustainable project. ASE points obtained are later compared to the resulting points weighted by the reported priorities of Mexican decision makers in the energy sector obtained from a questionnaire survey. The comparison shows that NGCC achieves a 1.94 times worse negative score than STE, but after incorporating decision makerś priorities, the ratio increases to 2.06 due to the relevance given to environmental impacts such as photochemical oxidants formation and climate change potential, as well as social risks like human rights risks.

  7. Sustainable residential districts : the residents' role in project success

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Abdalla, G.

    2012-01-01

    Sustainable residential districts have been realized worldwide. These districts are promoted to be efficient in the use of natural materials and sustainable energy resources. Realization of sustainable residential districts can strongly contribute to achieve environmental objectives as imposed by

  8. Biomimetic design method for innovation and sustainability

    CERN Document Server

    Helfman Cohen, Yael

    2017-01-01

    Presenting a novel biomimetic design method for transferring design solutions from nature to technology, this book focuses on structure-function patterns in nature and advanced modeling tools derived from TRIZ, the theory of inventive problem-solving. The book includes an extensive literature review on biomimicry as an engine of both innovation and sustainability, and discusses in detail the biomimetic design process, current biomimetic design methods and tools. The structural biomimetic design method for innovation and sustainability put forward in this text encompasses (1) the research method and rationale used to develop and validate this new design method; (2) the suggested design algorithm and tools including the Findstructure database, structure-function patterns and ideality patterns; and (3) analyses of four case studies describing how to use the proposed method. This book offers an essential resource for designers who wish to use nature as a source of inspiration and knowledge, innovators and sustain...

  9. Sustainability of animal production systems: an ecological perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vavra, M

    1996-06-01

    The question of sustainability of agricultural production and the use of natural resources has become a popular topic. Most scientists agree that current systems are generally non-sustainable. Current rates of resource extraction will lead us to a depleted earth in the future. Sustainability is defined in many ways. For this paper sustainability should be considered the overlap of what is wanted and what is ecologically possible. Attempts have been made to place a quantitative measure on sustainability. However, it should be considered a trajectory or goal, a direction that guides constructive change, rather than a single quantitative measure. Research and extension personnel may have to take a broader look at their efforts and expand their knowledge base in order to address the issue of sustainable production systems. Both natural events and those caused by humans bring about changes in production potential that require shifts in management. Uncertainty and change should be incorporated into adaptive management strategies. Interdisciplinary efforts are needed to confront these issues. Animal scientists need to formulate management systems that are environmentally compatible or face restrictive legislation that will force change. Members of the American Society of Animal Science seem to agree: efficient and sustainable use of natural resources appears in the draft of the Strategic Plan of the Society, and a poll of members revealed that environmental concerns about animal agriculture was a primary issue facing animal scientists.

  10. Sustainable rural learning ecologies- a prolegomenon traversing transcendence of discursive notions of sustainability, social justice, development and food sovereignty

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dipane Hlalele

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper contributes, through traversing contested notions of sustainability, social justice, development and food sovereignty, to discourses around creation of sustainable rural learning ecologies. There has always been at least in the realm of scientific discourse, an attempt to dissociate the natural or physical environment from the social and human environment. This trend did not only affect the two spheres of existence only. It is further imbued and spawned fragmented and pervasive terminology, practices and human thought. Drawing from the ‘creating sustainable rural learning ecologies’ research project that commenced in 2011, I challenge and contest the use of such discourses and argue for the transcendence of such. This would, in my opinion, create space for harmonious and fluid co-existence between nature and humanity, such that the contribution of learning practices exudes and expedites sustainability in rural ecologies.

  11. Efficacy of manual therapy treatments for people with cervicogenic dizziness and pain: protocol of a randomised controlled trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reid Susan A

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Cervicogenic dizziness is a disabling condition characterised by postural unsteadiness that is aggravated by cervical spine movements and associated with a painful and/or stiff neck. Two manual therapy treatments (Mulligan’s Sustained Natural Apophyseal Glides (SNAGs and Maitland’s passive joint mobilisations are used by physiotherapists to treat this condition but there is little evidence from randomised controlled trials to support their use. The aim of this study is to conduct a randomised controlled trial to compare these two forms of manual therapy (Mulligan glides and Maitland mobilisations to each other and to a placebo in reducing symptoms of cervicogenic dizziness in the longer term and to conduct an economic evaluation of the interventions. Methods Participants with symptoms of dizziness described as imbalance, together with a painful and/or stiff neck will be recruited via media releases, advertisements and mail-outs to medical practitioners in the Hunter region of NSW, Australia. Potential participants will be screened by a physiotherapist and a neurologist to rule out other causes of their dizziness. Once diagnosed with cervciogenic dizziness, 90 participants will be randomly allocated to one of three groups: Maitland mobilisations plus range-of-motion exercises, Mulligan SNAGs plus self-SNAG exercises or placebo. Participants will receive two to six treatments over six weeks. The trial will have unblinded treatment but blinded outcome assessments. Assessments will occur at baseline, post-treatment, six weeks, 12 weeks, six months and 12 months post treatment. The primary outcome will be intensity of dizziness. Other outcome measures will be frequency of dizziness, disability, intensity of cervical pain, cervical range of motion, balance, head repositioning, adverse effects and treatment satisfaction. Economic outcomes will also be collected. Discussion This paper describes the methods for a randomised

  12. Engineering for Sustainable Development and the Common Good

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, William E.

    2006-01-01

    In 1994, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) updated its Code of Ethics to include specific statements on sustainable development and at about the same time, 1994, ASCE adopted its Policy 418 on sustainable development. Sustainable development as defined by ASCE "is the challenge of meeting human needs for natural resources, industrial…

  13. Qualification of the plans of forest handling as instruments for the sustainable use of the natural forests in Colombia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Linares Prieto, Ricardo; Avendano Reyes Jeimmy

    2001-01-01

    The handling and sustainable use of the forest ecosystems of the country is one of the purposes of the politicians from Colombia, in particular, and of the world in general; and the forest handling plans (PMF) they are constituted in one of the existent technical and legal instruments for its administration. However, the current national situation as for the use and conservation of the natural forests points out that the PMF is not completing its function and that they suffer of a hypothetical suitability lack for such ends. With base in the previous situation, it decided to carry out this investigation that was guided to evaluate and to determine the suitability of the PMF and the corresponding forest inventories, as instruments to plan and to carry out the handling and the use of the natural forests in Colombia, taking like case study; the Municipalities of Olaya Herrera, Francisco Pizarro, Mosquera, Roberto Payan and Magui, in the pacific coast of the Narino Department, that is one of the main areas of forest use in the country and supplying of an important volume of wood for the national industry, reason for which the use of the local forests is there the main productive activity of the black communities seated. The study was carried out during a lapse of six months, including two months of field work, in the mark of the Project: Application and Evaluation of Approaches and Indicators for the sustainable ordination of the natural forests, carried out under the auspices of the Ministry of the environment of Colombia and the International Organization of Tropical Wood - IOTW

  14. Leverage points for sustainability transformation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abson, David J; Fischer, Joern; Leventon, Julia; Newig, Jens; Schomerus, Thomas; Vilsmaier, Ulli; von Wehrden, Henrik; Abernethy, Paivi; Ives, Christopher D; Jager, Nicolas W; Lang, Daniel J

    2017-02-01

    Despite substantial focus on sustainability issues in both science and politics, humanity remains on largely unsustainable development trajectories. Partly, this is due to the failure of sustainability science to engage with the root causes of unsustainability. Drawing on ideas by Donella Meadows, we argue that many sustainability interventions target highly tangible, but essentially weak, leverage points (i.e. using interventions that are easy, but have limited potential for transformational change). Thus, there is an urgent need to focus on less obvious but potentially far more powerful areas of intervention. We propose a research agenda inspired by systems thinking that focuses on transformational 'sustainability interventions', centred on three realms of leverage: reconnecting people to nature, restructuring institutions and rethinking how knowledge is created and used in pursuit of sustainability. The notion of leverage points has the potential to act as a boundary object for genuinely transformational sustainability science.

  15. An Artist's Anthropological Approach to Sustainability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mackinnon-Day, Patricia

    2016-01-01

    Recent studies of sustainability draw attention to the impact art and culture have on communities. The Earth Charter, which originated in 1968, fostered the idea of "a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace." This article supports the idea that art can…

  16. ETHICAL ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABILITY

    OpenAIRE

    Amantova-Salmane, Liene

    2015-01-01

    Ethics can be defined as a reflection on nature and a definition of “the good”. Individuals value qualities and things dissimilarly, most visibly, but they also value their goods in different ways, in different relations to each other, for different reasons, and to different ends. These differences are very applicable to sustainability. In other words, sustainability cannot be achieved without attention to its ethical dimensions. The aim of this research is to examine the ethical aspects of s...

  17. APPROACHES FOR SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    G(U)NTHER Seliger; SEBASTIAN Kernbaum; MARCO Zettl

    2007-01-01

    Sustainable development is a holistic approach harmonizing ecological, economical and socio-political needs with respect to the superior objective of enhancing human living standards. Thereby the availability of natural resources and the conservation of the ecosystems have to be considered that future generations have the possibility to meet their own needs. A long-term economical development demands the transition from a source-sink economy to a cycle economy as a result of limited resources, limited environmental capacities to absorb waste and emissions as well as increasing needs of a growing population. A reference model for sustainability in manufacturing is presented and used to illustrate sustainable approaches with respect to management, technology, process and product. Adaptation of products and components is a vital element for supporting efficient reuse of products and components. Consequently adaptation contributes to the ambitious goals of sustainability. Technological enablers for adaptation as modularity, information and communication technology are exemplarily introduced. Moreover, approaches for disseminating knowledge in sustainability are given.

  18. What is Sustainability?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Farrington

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Sustainability as a policy concept has its origin in the Brundtland Report of 1987. That document was concerned with the tension between the aspirations of mankind towards a better life on the one hand and the limitations imposed by nature on the other hand. In the course of time, the concept has been re-interpreted as encompassing three dimensions, namely social, economic and environmental. The paper argues that this change in meaning (a obscures the real contradiction between the aims of welfare for all and environmental conservation; (b risks diminishing the importance of the environmental dimension; and (c separates social from economic aspects, which in reality are one and the same. It is proposed instead to return to the original meaning, where sustainability is concerned with the well-being of future generations and in particular with irreplaceable natural resources—as opposed to the gratification of present needs which we call well-being. A balance needs to be found between those two, but not by pretending they are three sides of the same coin. Although we use up natural resources at the expense of future generations, we also generate capital (including knowledge which raises future well-being. A major question is to what extent the one compensates for the other. This debate centres around the problem of substitutability, which has been cast into a distinction between ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ sustainability. It is argued that these two do not need to be in opposition but complement one another.

  19. Trading off natural resources and rural livelihoods. A framework for sustainability assessment of small-scale food production in water-limited regions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Recanati, Francesca; Castelletti, Andrea; Dotelli, Giovanni; Melià, Paco

    2017-12-01

    Enhancing local production is key to promoting food security, especially in rural households of low-income countries, but may conflict with limited natural resources and ecosystems preservation. We propose a framework integrating the water-food nexus and a sustainable livelihoods perspective to assess small-scale food production in water-poor regions. We demonstrate it by assessing alternative production scenarios in the Gaza Strip at different spatial scales. At the scale of a single farm, there is a clear conflict among objectives: while cash crops ensure good incomes but contribute scarcely to domestic protein supply, crops performing well from the nutritional and environmental viewpoint are among the worst from the economic one. At the regional scale, domestic production might cover an important fraction of nutritional needs while contributing to household income, but water scarcity impairs the satisfaction of food demand by domestic production alone. Pursuing food security under multiple constraints thus requires a holistic perspective: we discuss how a multidimensional approach can promote the engagement of different stakeholders and allow the exploration of trade-offs between food security, sustainable exploitation of natural resources and economic viability.

  20. Sustainable operations management: A typological approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lawrence Michael Corbett

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses the nature of sustainability and sustainable development as they relate to operations management. It proposes a typology for sustainable operations management that is based on the life cycle stages of a product and the three dimensions of corporate social responsibility. The aim is to show how this typology development could provide a useful approach to integrating the diverse strands of sustainability in operations, using industrial ecology and carbon neutrality as examples. It does this by providing a focused subset of environmental concerns for an industrial ecology approach, and some research propositions for the issue of carbon neutrality.

  1. Theories of willpower affect sustained learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Eric M; Walton, Gregory M; Dweck, Carol S; Job, Veronika; Trzesniewski, Kali H; McClure, Samuel M

    2012-01-01

    Building cognitive abilities often requires sustained engagement with effortful tasks. We demonstrate that beliefs about willpower-whether willpower is viewed as a limited or non-limited resource-impact sustained learning on a strenuous mental task. As predicted, beliefs about willpower did not affect accuracy or improvement during the initial phases of learning; however, participants who were led to view willpower as non-limited showed greater sustained learning over the full duration of the task. These findings highlight the interactive nature of motivational and cognitive processes: motivational factors can substantially affect people's ability to recruit their cognitive resources to sustain learning over time.

  2. Artemisia: Active and Interactive Monitoring of the Forests in Protected Areas Aimed at the Sustainable Management of Nature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Clelia Cirillo

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available To pursue the usage of forests resources in the processes of economic and social development it is determining that the principles of natural heritage protection join in a concept of progress, based on evolution and technological innovation; the realization of innovative investigation and representation tools turns out to be useful to ease the integration of forests’ resources in shared development processes aimed at enhancing the cooperation of local actors, and to ease the territory’s sustainable growth and the development of the natural heritage. The integrated management of the actions aimed at protecting and easing the ecologic and recreative functioning of forests, which are increasingly exposed to pressures caused by several catastrophic factors, requires the tuning of modelling and active monitoring systems of the forests based on social networks and volunteering for the processes of data updating.

  3. Fundamentals of sustainable neighbourhoods

    CERN Document Server

    Friedman, Avi

    2015-01-01

    This book introduces architects, engineers, builders, and urban planners to a range of design principles of sustainable communities and illustrates them with outstanding case studies. Drawing on the author’s experience as well as local and international case studies, Fundamentals of Sustainable Neighbourhoods presents planning concepts that minimize developments' carbon footprint through compact communities, adaptable and expandable dwellings, adaptable landscapes, and smaller-sized yet quality-designed housing. This book also: Examines in-depth global strategies for minimizing the residential carbon footprint, including district heating, passive solar gain, net-zero residences, as well as preserving the communities' natural assets Reconsiders conceptual approaches in building design and urban planning to promote a better connection between communities and nature Demonstrates practical applications of green architecture Focuses on innovative living spaces in urban environments

  4. Pluralism in Search of Sustainability: Ethics, Knowledge and Methdology in Sustainability Science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ellinor Isgren

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Sustainability Science is an emerging, transdisciplinary academic field that aims to help build a sustainable global society by drawing on and integrating research from the humanities and the social, natural, medical and engineering sciences. Academic knowledge is combined with that from relevant actors from outside academia, such as policy-makers, businesses, social organizations and citizens. The field is focused on examining the interactions between human, environmental, and engineered systems to understand and contribute to solutions for complex challenges that threaten the future of humanity and the integrity of the life support systems of the planet, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and land and water degradation. Since its inception in around the year 2000, and as expressed by a range of proponents in the field, sustainability science has become an established international platform for interdisciplinary research on complex social problems [1]. This has been done by exploring ways to promote ‘greater integration and cooperation in fulfilling the sustainability science mandate’ [2]. Sustainability science has thereby become an extremely diverse academic field, yet one with an explicit normative mission. After nearly two decades of sustainability research, it is important to reflect on a major question: what critical knowledge can we gain from sustainability science research on persistent socio-ecological problems and new sustainability challenges?

  5. Ecological aspects in sustainable development model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kurlapov, L.I.

    1996-01-01

    Environment problems are caused by intensive use of natural resources due to scientific progress in combination with the present structure of unlimited consumption. To prevent the impending ecological disaster a model of sustainable development has been worked out. It is aimed at satisfying the ever-growing requirements of the modern man without damaging the environment. Scientifically grounded use of nature mat contribute to solution of the problem. The acceptable use of nature should take account of the land ecosystem resources which is ensured by reliable model including flow balance in particular. Irreversible flows generate entropy which could be the universal measure of technic genetics impact. Entropic condition of the acceptable (sustainable) development are started: techno-genic entropy production must be less than natural entropy production. Particular sciences should be re-oriented towards environmental problems. Environmental monitoring strategy should provide for determination of macro properties as well as flows. (author)

  6. Indicators analysis and objectives for the development sustainable and sustainability environmental

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pedro Noboa-Romero

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The present article is product of a research qualitative, descriptive and analytical of the indicators and objectives aimed to the development sustainable. The main objective of this essay is to analyze sustainability indicators: index of human development (IDH, sustainable development goals (SDGS, objectives of the Millennium Goals (MDGS and the index of Multidimensional poverty (IPM; through a review of research and work on these issues, in order to establish progress and results that have been generated during the use of these indicators in the field of health education, technology, and environment. Demonstrate that there is inequality between Nations, the approach is oriented to a development in the short term, benefit exclusively to current generations, exhausting natural resources, regardless of a vision in the long term for the future generations.

  7. Sustainable development. Uncertain futures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leveque, Ch.; Sciama, Y.

    2005-01-01

    The last 30 years show that the human being did not dominate the Nature. After an introduction on the historical relations between the human and the environment, the authors present the different research ways (irrigation with recovery, renewable energies, new agriculture,...). They show that science is not always the enemy of the sustainable development. The third part presents the constraints that the society puts on the way of the sustainable development, which explain the limitations of the progress. (A.L.B.)

  8. Sustainability, accounting and reporting

    CERN Document Server

    Balachandran, Kashi

    2011-01-01

    The topic of business sustainability is multidisciplinary in nature, and its complexity calls for putting in place a wide variety of research approaches, such as action research, case studies, surveys, model development etc. The papers presented in this ebook represent a comprehensive overview of recent advances in this area of accounting and reporting research. It contains six papers, covering how leasing can increase environmental benefits, CSR, developing social, environmental and economic indicators for SMEs, sustainability reporting and reputation risk and others.

  9. Sustainable development strategy 2001-2003

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2001-01-01

    The planned strategies and actions that Environment Canada (EC) will take to promote sustainable development with the goal to preserve and enhance the quality of the natural environment and its renewable resources were described. EC's challenge regarding sustainable development is to integrate environmental, economic and social considerations into their federal environmental policies and programs. This report described how EC plans to implement their agenda based on four major themes which include: (1) knowledge for decision making, (2) incentives, (3) partnerships and sustainable communities, and (4) managing for sustainable development. A federal framework on sustainable communities will be developed jointly with other government departments and partners with the objective of developing action plans. EC will measure and report on its performance in implementing its sustainable development strategy on an annual basis to identify any corrective measures during the three year period of the strategy. This report also included an issue scan, a consultation summary, and a review of the department's long term results against performance indicators. tab., figs

  10. Earthworms, pesticides and sustainable agriculture: a review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Datta, Shivika; Singh, Joginder; Singh, Sharanpreet; Singh, Jaswinder

    2016-05-01

    The aim of this review is to generate awareness and understand the importance of earthworms in sustainable agriculture and effect of pesticides on their action. The natural resources are finite and highly prone to degradation by the misuse of land and mismanagement of soil. The world is in utter need of a healthy ecosystem that provides with fertile soil, clean water, food and other natural resources. Anthropogenic activities have led to an increased contamination of land. The intensification of industrial and agricultural practices chiefly the utilization of pesticides has in almost every way made our natural resources concave. Earthworms help in a number of tasks that support many ecosystem services that favor agrosystem sustainability but are degraded by exhaustive practices such as the use of pesticides. The present review assesses the response of earthworm toward the pesticides and also evaluates the relationship between earthworm activity and plant growth. We strictly need to refresh and rethink on the policies and norms devised by us on sustainable ecology. In an equivalent way, the natural resources should be utilized and further, essential ways for betterment of present and future livelihood should be sought.

  11. Toward a Sustainable Sense of Self in Teaching and Teacher Education: Sustainable Happiness and Well-Being through Mindfulness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kyte, Darlene

    2016-01-01

    This paper examines the effects of mindfulness practice through "pranayama," hatha yoga, and meditation on practicing teachers in an inner city school to determine if practices of this nature could contribute to sustainable sense of self, sustainable happiness, and well-being for practicing teachers and pre-service teachers. Furthermore,…

  12. Bacteria Associated to Plants Naturally Selected in a Historical PCB Polluted Soil Show Potential to Sustain Natural Attenuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vergani, Lorenzo; Mapelli, Francesca; Marasco, Ramona; Crotti, Elena; Fusi, Marco; Di Guardo, Antonio; Armiraglio, Stefano; Daffonchio, Daniele; Borin, Sara

    2017-01-01

    according to in vitro assays. PGP tested in vivo on tomato plants using eleven selected bacterial isolates, confirmed the promotion and protection potential of the rhizosphere bacteria. Different spontaneous plant species naturally selected in a historical chronically polluted site showed to determine the enrichment of peculiar bacterial communities in the soil fractions associated to the roots. All the rhizosphere communities, nevertheless, hosted bacteria with degradation/detoxification and PGP potential, putatively sustaining the natural attenuation process.

  13. Bacteria Associated to Plants Naturally Selected in a Historical PCB Polluted Soil Show Potential to Sustain Natural Attenuation

    KAUST Repository

    Vergani, Lorenzo

    2017-07-25

    according to in vitro assays. PGP tested in vivo on tomato plants using eleven selected bacterial isolates, confirmed the promotion and protection potential of the rhizosphere bacteria. Different spontaneous plant species naturally selected in a historical chronically polluted site showed to determine the enrichment of peculiar bacterial communities in the soil fractions associated to the roots. All the rhizosphere communities, nevertheless, hosted bacteria with degradation/detoxification and PGP potential, putatively sustaining the natural attenuation process.

  14. Bacteria Associated to Plants Naturally Selected in a Historical PCB Polluted Soil Show Potential to Sustain Natural Attenuation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lorenzo Vergani

    2017-07-01

    among the isolates according to in vitro assays. PGP tested in vivo on tomato plants using eleven selected bacterial isolates, confirmed the promotion and protection potential of the rhizosphere bacteria. Different spontaneous plant species naturally selected in a historical chronically polluted site showed to determine the enrichment of peculiar bacterial communities in the soil fractions associated to the roots. All the rhizosphere communities, nevertheless, hosted bacteria with degradation/detoxification and PGP potential, putatively sustaining the natural attenuation process.

  15. Sustainability and energy security : the squeeze on natural gas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoover, G.; Howatson, A.; Parmenter, R.

    2004-01-01

    This paper outlines the impact of environmental policy on natural gas demand and describes alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass and clean coal that can increase energy supplies. This briefing also establishes the short-, medium-, and long-term consequences of current natural gas realities. It also outlines the driving forces in Canada and the United States behind the demand for natural gas. The impact of policy formation and the phase-out of coal in Ontario are addressed along with natural gas supply prospects and the prospects and obstacles for riskier incremental supplies such as liquefied natural gas, natural gas from coal, and frontier natural gas. It was concluded that strong demand and tight supply are the factors that have driven up natural gas prices. Continued high natural gas prices in the short term will likely motivate conservation strategies at the personal household level as well as in the business and industrial sectors. Although wind power is seen as a clean, competitively prices alternative to natural gas-fired electricity generation, its contribution is not expected to change the supply and demand equilibrium. Initiatives such as the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, the Alaskan Pipeline and drilling in the Atlantic may help balance natural gas supply and demand in the mid-term. 44 refs., 2 tabs., 7 figs

  16. Embedding Sustainability and Renewable Energy Concepts into Undergraduate Curriculum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belu, R.; Cioca, L.

    2017-12-01

    Human society is facing an uncertain future due to the present unsustainable use of natural resources and the growing imbalance with our natural environment. Creation of a sustainable society is a complex multi-disciplinary and multi-stage project, believed to dominate our century, requiring collaboration, teamwork, and abilities to work with respect and learn from other disciplines and professions. Sustainable development means technological progress meeting the present needs without compromising future generation ability to meet its needs and aspirations. It has four aspects: environment, technology, economy, and societal organizations. Students are often taught to deal with technological developments and economic analysis to assess the process or product viability, but are not fully familiar with sustainability and optimization of technology development benefits and the environment. Schools in many disciplines are working to include sustainability concepts into their curricula. Teaching sustainability and renewable energy has become an essential feature today higher education. Sustainable and green design is about designs recognizing the constraints of the natural resource uses and the environment. It applies to all of engineering and science areas, as all systems interact with the environment in complex and important ways. Our project goals are to provide students with multiple and comprehensive exposures to sustainability and renewable energy concepts, facilitating the development of passion and skills to integrate them into practice. The expected outcomes include an increased social responsibility; development of innovative thinking skills; understanding of sustainability issues, and increasing student interests in the engineering and science programs. The project aims to incorporate sustainability and renewable energy concepts into our undergraduate curricula, employing the existing course resources, and developing new courses and laboratory experiments

  17. Sustainable development and energy supply

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Levi, H.W.

    1997-01-01

    'Sustainable' is an old established term which has made a political career in the past ten years. The roots of this career extend back into the 18th century, when an economic concept of forest management was developed to replace yield maximization achieved by means of complete deforestation by yield optimization attained by conservative forest management. This latter type of forest management was termed 'sustainable'. The language used in today's sustainability debate was based on the idea of preserving the capital provided by nature and living on the interest. As a consequence, the term 'sustainable' became one of the key points in environmental policy and economic policy after the Brundtland report had been published (V. Hauff, 1987), which also constitutes the background to this article. (orig.) [de

  18. The Politics of Sustainability in the Arctic

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    . In original conservationist discourse, the environment was the sole referent object of sustainability, however, as sustainability discourses expand, the concept is linked to an increasing number of referent objects, such as, society, economy, culture and identity. This book sets out a theoretical framework...... of sustainability and how actors are employing and contesting this concept in specific regions within the Arctic. In doing so, the book demonstrates how sustainability is being given new meanings in the postcolonial Arctic and what the political implications are for postcoloniality, nature, and development more...

  19. Theories of willpower affect sustained learning.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eric M Miller

    Full Text Available Building cognitive abilities often requires sustained engagement with effortful tasks. We demonstrate that beliefs about willpower-whether willpower is viewed as a limited or non-limited resource-impact sustained learning on a strenuous mental task. As predicted, beliefs about willpower did not affect accuracy or improvement during the initial phases of learning; however, participants who were led to view willpower as non-limited showed greater sustained learning over the full duration of the task. These findings highlight the interactive nature of motivational and cognitive processes: motivational factors can substantially affect people's ability to recruit their cognitive resources to sustain learning over time.

  20. Sustainability between Necessity, Contingency and Impossibility

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karl Bruckmeier

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Sustainable use of natural resources seems necessary to maintain functions and services of eco- and social systems in the long run. Efforts in policy and science for sustainable development have shown the splintering of local, national and global strategies. Sustainability becomes contingent and insecure with the actors´ conflicting knowledge, interests and aims, and seems even impossible through the “rebound”-effect. To make short and long term requirements of sustainability coherent requires critical, comparative and theoretical analysis of the problems met. For this purpose important concepts and theories are discussed in this review of recent interdisciplinary literature about resource management.

  1. Sustainable development in agriculture: is it really sustainable?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Singh, S.R.K.; Srinivas, K.; Kumar, L.R.; Gupta, H.S.

    2005-01-01

    Indian agriculture has achieved remarkable success in the food grain production due to inception of 'rainbow revolution', which made the country self-sufficient in food production. Sustainable agriculture (SA) is an ongoing process, in which people take actions leading to development of agriculture that meets their current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. It advocates avoiding all those actions, which reduce the ability of future generations to meet out the present generations. It is based on the optimal interaction between clean environment, healthy economy, and vital society by avoiding trade-off of problems to other regions on to the future. Moreover, sustainable agriculture is the function of people's progress and nature's capacity. In fact, SA commits us to considering the long-term effect and to recognize our place within the ecosystem. It encourages a continuous reflection on the implications of human activity on the ecosystem. Empirical evidences shows that in the race of self-sufficiency in food grain production, we compromised a lot on social and environmental fronts. The aftermath of green revolution is not so sustainable as it showed reverse side too, in the form of environmental degradation and ecological imbalances. Such threats have led to the need for promoting sustainable development in agriculture. Due to several unsustainable activities which resulted in resource degradation in the form of top soil loss, ground water depletion and forest degradation. The average soil loss is estimated to be over 16 tonnes/ha/year. The ground water depletion resulted in several blocks as 'grey blocks' and 'dark blocks'. This happened mainly due to increase in number of tube-wells and free supply of electricity making the cost of pumping water very low. Rate of human induced land degradation is very high. Out of total geographical area of 329.0 million ha, 187 million ha (57.0 %) are reported to have degraded, of

  2. Premises of Sustainable Development on Rural Communities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anca Turtureanu

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available In this paper the authors want to highlight the opportunity on rural areas and development in termsof durability. The content of sustainable development offers to local communities real and lasting solutions.In this sense for a community to be truly sustainable, it must adopt a holistic approach, taking into accountshort-term environmental and economic sustainability of natural and cultural resources. The authors believethat a sustainable community among its objectives to include their major environmental issues, povertyeradication, improvement of quality of life, developing and maintaining an effective and viable localeconomies, leading to a global vision of sustainable development of all sectors of the community.

  3. Sustainability. An economic perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Elliott, Steven R.

    2005-01-01

    The economic perspective of sustainability focuses on the trade off of current consumption for future consumption. This was the question that faced the economists of the late 19th century such as Malthus who noticed growth in the population outpaced that of food. Yet, Malthusian prediction of famine and disaster did not come to pass due to technological innovation. There was a substitution of created capital (machines) for natural capital (labor and land). Thus, whether created- and natural capital are substitute or complementary goods is key to sustainability. Many economists believe we can maintain current consumption and that technological innovation will take care of the needs of future generations. However other economists believe that created capital and natural capital are complementary goods; as we consume more created capital, we will also have to consume more natural capital. The relationship between natural and created capital has an impact on what policies and incentives we consider for the preservation of opportunities for future generations. If they are substitutes, current efforts need to focus on development of new technologies which will allow us to do more with less. If they are complements we need to consider efforts of preservation and conservation. We understand that we cannot have our cake and eat it too. The debate is whether we emphasize finding a new way to bake more cake, or carefully consume the cake we have

  4. Incorporating permaculture and strategic management for sustainable ecological resource management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akhtar, Faiza; Lodhi, Suleman A; Khan, Safdar Shah; Sarwar, Farhana

    2016-09-01

    Utilization of natural assets to the best efficient level without changing natural balance has become a critical issue for researchers as awareness on climate change takes central position in global debate. Conventional sustainable resource management systems are based on neoclassical economic approach that ignores the nature's pattern and therefore are not actually capable of sustainable management of resources. Environmentalists are lately advocating incorporation of Permaculture as holistic approach based on ethics, equitable interaction with eco-systems to obtain sustainability. The paper integrates philosophy of permaculture with strategic management frameworks to develop a pragmatic tool for policy development. The policy design tool augments management tasks by integrating recording of natural assets, monitoring of key performance indicators and integration of sectorial policies in real time, bringing out policy as a truly live document. The tool enhances the edifice process, balancing short term viewpoints and long term development to secure renewability of natural resources. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. The national strategy for a sustainable development 2009-2013

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2010-01-01

    This document first presents the content of the French national strategy for a sustainable development, and notably its nine strategic challenges: climate change and energy, sustainable transport and mobility, sustainable consumption and production, sustainable management of biodiversity and natural resources, public health, prevention and risk management, international challenges in terms of sustainable development and struggle against poverty, knowledge society, and governance. While discussing these challenges, the report outlines the need to make this strategy more constraining for public authorities, to structure this strategy about transitions towards a sustainable development, and to give room to dialogue

  6. The hydrogen economy urgently needs environmentally sustainable hydroelectricity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goodland, R.

    1995-01-01

    Only two sources of energy were said to have the capacity to bridge the transition to fully sustainable and renewable energy, namely natural gas and hydro. The argument was made that because of this advantage, both forms will have to be promoted fast, since the transition to sustainable energy is urgent. In so far as natural gas supplies are concerned, it was estimated that they will last for perhaps the next 50 years, whereas hydroelectric potential is practically unlimited. Developing nations could vastly accelerate their development, reduce poverty and approach sustainability by exporting hydro to industrial countries. Similarly, industrial nations switching from fossil fuels to hydrogen could move up the environmental ranking, and significantly help alleviating global pollution and climate risks. Environmental ranking of new energy sources, world reservoirs of hydroelectric power, environmental and social ranking of hydro sites, the environmental impacts of hydro projects, and the concept of environmental sustainability in hydro reservoirs, were summarized. Greater acceptance of the need for sustainable development by the hydro industry was urged, along with more care in selecting hydro development sites with sustainability as a prime objective. 23 refs., 6 figs

  7. Challenges of sustainable rural tourism development in KwaZulu ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Challenges of sustainable rural tourism development in KwaZulu-Natal. ... for promoting tourism as a sustainable economic driver in their municipalities. ... the nature of tourism, evaluating community's sensitivity and associated impacts should ...

  8. Astrobiology, Sustainability and Ethical Perspectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arnould, Jacques

    2009-12-01

    Astrobiology, a new field of research associating the prospects and constraints of prebiotic chemistry, mineralogy, geochemistry, astrophysics, theoretical physics, microbial ecology, etc., is assessed in terms of sustainability through the scientific and social functions it fulfils, and the limits it encounters or strives to overcome. In the same way as sustainable development, astrobiology must also take into account the temporal dimension specific to its field of investigation and examine its underlying conception of Nature.

  9. ENVIRONMENT ACCOUNTING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

    OpenAIRE

    Florin Boghean

    2007-01-01

    Economic sustainability or intergenerational equity entails maintaining social well being by decisions about investments in different types of asset. Under certain conditions, consumption can be sustained by depleting resources, or various kinds of natural capital, while building up other kinds of capital. Theoretically, the choices involve the use of a set of accounting prices. The question becomes one of finding and implementing accounting prices that express the roles of the various capita...

  10. Institutionalizing Strong Sustainability: A Rawlsian Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Konrad Ott

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available The article aims to provide some ethical orientation on how sustainability might be actualized by institutions. Since institutionalization is about rules and organization, it presupposes ideas and concepts by which institutions can be substantiated. After outlining terminology, the article deals with underlying ethical and conceptual problems which are highly relevant for any suggestions concerning institutionalization. These problems are: (a the ethical scope of the sustainability perspective (natural capital, poverty, sentient animals, (b the theory of justice on which ideas about sustainability are built (capability approach, Rawlsianism, and (c the favored concept of sustainability (weak, intermediate, and strong sustainability. These problems are analyzed in turn. As a result, a Rawlsian concept of rule-based strong sustainability is proposed. The specific problems of institutionalization are addressed by applying Rawls’s concept of branches. The article concludes with arguments in favor of three transnational duties which hold for states that have adopted Rawlsian strong sustainability.

  11. Food security and sustainability: can one exist without the other?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berry, Elliot M; Dernini, Sandro; Burlingame, Barbara; Meybeck, Alexandre; Conforti, Piero

    2015-09-01

    To position the concept of sustainability within the context of food security. An overview of the interrelationships between food security and sustainability based on a non-systematic literature review and informed discussions based principally on a quasi-historical approach from meetings and reports. International and global food security and nutrition. The Rome Declaration on World Food Security in 1996 defined its three basic dimensions as: availability, accessibility and utilization, with a focus on nutritional well-being. It also stressed the importance of sustainable management of natural resources and the elimination of unsustainable patterns of food consumption and production. In 2009, at the World Summit on Food Security, the concept of stability/vulnerability was added as the short-term time indicator of the ability of food systems to withstand shocks, whether natural or man-made, as part of the Five Rome Principles for Sustainable Global Food Security. More recently, intergovernmental processes have emphasized the importance of sustainability to preserve the environment, natural resources and agro-ecosystems (and thus the overlying social system), as well as the importance of food security as part of sustainability and vice versa. Sustainability should be considered as part of the long-term time dimension in the assessment of food security. From such a perspective the concept of sustainable diets can play a key role as a goal and a way of maintaining nutritional well-being and health, while ensuring the sustainability for future food security. Without integrating sustainability as an explicit (fifth?) dimension of food security, today's policies and programmes could become the very cause of increased food insecurity in the future.

  12. Sustainable Development and Protection of the Environment: Two Management Strategies Not Always Compatible

    Science.gov (United States)

    Athanassakis, Artemios M.

    2010-01-01

    The definition of Sustainable Development has received intense criticism and contestations with the result, that International Union for the Conservation of Natural Resources (I.U.C.N.), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (W.W.F.) clarified that sustainable development means the improvement of life quality, inside the limits of clarified capacity of ecosystems. According to its critics, is considered as a general concept, indefinite and contradictory. Those disputes put the accent on the close relation between the Sustainable Development and the values of the today's global market. This relationship transforms the Sustainable Development to an one dimensional economical growth with the "ecological ornaments" of sustainability and protection of environment. Therefore this paper looks for, whether the sustainable development consists one more device, focuses on the world financial system, or establishes one optimistic developmental perspective, which might harmonize the economical activities with the natural function of our planetic ecosystems.

  13. A tailored biocatalyst achieved by the rational anchoring of imidazole groups on a natural polymer: furnishing a potential artificial nuclease by sustainable materials engineering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferreira, José G L; Grein-Iankovski, Aline; Oliveira, Marco A S; Simas-Tosin, Fernanda F; Riegel-Vidotti, Izabel C; Orth, Elisa S

    2015-04-11

    Foreseeing the development of artificial enzymes by sustainable materials engineering, we rationally anchored reactive imidazole groups on gum arabic, a natural biocompatible polymer. The tailored biocatalyst GAIMZ demonstrated catalytic activity (>10(5)-fold) in dephosphorylation reactions with recyclable features and was effective in cleaving plasmid DNA, comprising a potential artificial nuclease.

  14. Staircase To Sustainable Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Doorasamy Mishelle

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this article to provide a theoretical framework on the concepts of Sustainable Development and the process that companies need to follow in order to ensure the future sustainability of business operations. Various secondary sources and previous literature was reviewed to clearly identify why companies are finding it difficult to conduct their business operations in a sustainable manner. Stricter legislation and regulations, increased competition, depletion of natural resources and market pressures have placed organisations under increased pressure to improve environmental performance and achieve eco-efficiency. This paper provides comprehensive overview of how companies can achieve the ‘Triple bottom line’ by committing to continuous improvement and adhering to the regulations stipulated according to the International Standards of Organisations (ISO14001.

  15. Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy (The ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    We welcome submissions that focus on any aspect of sustainable development law and policy ranging from the economic, social and environmental dimensions. Consequently, papers that explore broad themes of sustainable development such as agriculture, banking, e-commerce, environment, natural resources, public ...

  16. A Positive Generation Effect on Memory for Auditory Context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Overman, Amy A; Richard, Alison G; Stephens, Joseph D W

    2017-06-01

    Self-generation of information during memory encoding has large positive effects on subsequent memory for items, but mixed effects on memory for contextual information associated with items. A processing account of generation effects on context memory (Mulligan in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30(4), 838-855, 2004; Mulligan, Lozito, & Rosner in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32(4), 836-846, 2006) proposes that these effects depend on whether the generation task causes any shift in processing of the type of context features for which memory is being tested. Mulligan and colleagues have used this account to predict various negative effects of generation on context memory, but the account also predicts positive generation effects under certain circumstances. The present experiment provided a critical test of the processing account by examining how generation affected memory for auditory rather than visual context. Based on the processing account, we predicted that generation of rhyme words should enhance processing of auditory information associated with the words (i.e., voice gender), whereas generation of antonym words should have no effect. These predictions were confirmed, providing support to the processing account.

  17. THE PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND THEIR INFLUENCE OVER THE ROMANIAN ECOTOURISM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria STOIAN

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Tourism can exacerbate some environmental problems and increase degradation of the environment. Sustainable tourism, a tourism industry that applies principles of sustainable development can on the contrary assist in maintaining ecosystems and biodiversity. In this regard, ecotourism, a form of sustainable tourism based on the observation of natural areas is an interesting niche. Romania has strong major natural to position in advantage in this market.

  18. Social Sustainability of Provinces in China: A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA Window Analysis under the Concepts of Natural and Managerial Disposability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Toshiyuki Sueyoshi

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Natural and managerial disposability are two important strategic concepts, whose priorities are economic prosperity and environmental protection, respectively. This study defines social sustainability as the simultaneous achievement of economic prosperity and environmental protection, and then assesses the degree of social sustainability across provinces in China. In addition, this study combines the concepts of natural and managerial disposability with Data Envelopment Analysis window analysis. The method allows for frontier shifts among different time periods and thus can provide more stable and reliable results. This method is applied to assess the energy and environmental performances across the provinces of China during 2003–2014, and provides detailed information about provincial variations, which are valuable and important to policy makers (especially for those in local governments. This study identifies three important findings. First, there were no significant improvements in China’s environmental performance during the analysis periods, since, historically, the governments have not paid enough attention to environmental protection. Second, there are increasing trends in the provincial gaps regarding the environmental performance. In this regard, the central government should help the poor provinces to protect the environment. Third, there are significant differences between the results obtained under natural disposability and those obtained under managerial disposability, since they have different priorities regarding the operational and the environmental performances. Thus, significant contributions can be made by eco-technology progress combined with managerial performance improvements by business leaders and policy makers. This can be a new policy direction for the Chinese government.

  19. Anaerobic digestion for sustainable development: a natural approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gljzen, H J

    2002-01-01

    After the discovery of methane gas by Alessandro Volta in 1776, it took about 100 years before anaerobic processes for the treatment of wastewater and sludges were introduced. The development of high rate anaerobic digesters for the treatment of sewage and industrial wastewater took until the nineteen-seventies and for solid waste even till the nineteen-eighties. All digesters have in common that they apply natural anaerobic consortia of microorganisms for degradation and transformation processes. In view of this, it could be rewarding to evaluate the efficiency of natural ecosystems for their possible application. Examples of high rate anaerobic natural systems include the forestomach of ruminants and the hindgut of certain insects, such as termites and cockroaches. These 'natural reactors' exhibit volumetric methane production rates as high as 35 l/l.d. The development of anaerobic reactors based on such natural anaerobic systems could produce eco-technologies for the effective management of a wide variety of solid wastes and industrial wastewater. Important limitations of anaerobic treatment of domestic sewage relate to the absence of nutrient and pathogen removal. A combination of anaerobic pre-treatment followed by photosynthetic posttreatment is proposed for the effective recovery of energy and nutrients from sewage. This eco-technology approach is based on the recognition that the main nutrient assimilating capacity is housed in photosynthetic plants. The proposed anaerobic-photosynthetic process is energy efficient, cost effective and applicable under a wide variety of rural and urban conditions. a natural systems approach towards waste management could generate affordable eco-technologies for effective treatment and resource recovery.

  20. Specification aggregate quarry expansion: a case study demonstrating sustainable management of natural aggregate resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Langer, William H.; Tucker, M.L.

    2003-01-01

    Many countries, provinces, territories, or states in the European Union, Australia, Canada, the United States, and elsewhere have begun implementing sustainability programs, but most of those programs stop short of sustainable management of aggregate resources. Sustainable practices do not always have to be conducted under the title of sustainability. This case study describes how Lafarge, a large multinational construction materials supplier, implemented the principles of sustainability even though there was an absence of existing local government policies or procedures addressing sustainable resource management. Jefferson County, Colorado, USA, is one of three counties in the six-county Denver, Colorado, region that has potentially available sources of crushed stone. Crushed stone comprises 30 percent of the aggregate produced in the area and plays a major role in regional aggregate resource needs. Jefferson County is home to four of the five crushed stone operations in the Denver region. Lafarge operates one of those four quarries. Lafarge recently proposed to expand its reserves by exchanging company-owned land for existing dedicated open space land adjacent to their quarry but owned by Jefferson County. A similar proposal submitted about 10 years earlier had been denied. Contrary to the earlier proposal, which was predicated on public relations, the new proposal was predicated on public trust. Although not explicitly managed under the moniker of sustainability, Lafarge used basic management principles that embody the tenets of sustainability. To achieve the goals of sustainable aggregate management where no governmental policies existed, Lafarge not only assumed their role of being a responsible corporate and environmental member of the community, but also assumed the role of facilitator to encourage and enable other stakeholders to responsibly resolve legitimate concerns regarding the Lafarge quarry proposal. Lafarge successfully presented an enlightened

  1. Factors Influencing the Identification of Sustainable Opportunities by SMEs: Empirical Evidence from Zambia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Progress Choongo

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This study uses the model of Patzelt and Shepherd (2011 to examine the factors influencing the identification of sustainable opportunities among SMEs in a developing country, Zambia. The factors under investigation include knowledge of the natural/social environment, perception of threats to the natural/social environment, altruism towards others and entrepreneurial knowledge. We interviewed 220 owner-managers in the trading and service sector who supply goods and services to the mining industry in Zambia. We found that altruism towards others was partially supported by our empirical results while the positive effects of knowledge of the natural/social environment and perception of threats to the natural/social environment on the identification of sustainable opportunities were not supported. Contrary to our expectations, entrepreneurial knowledge does not positively moderate the relationship between explanatory variables and the identification of sustainable opportunities. In sum, we found only limited empirical support for the model of Patzelt and Shepherd (2011 concerning the identification of sustainable opportunities. Our findings contribute to literature on entrepreneurship and sustainable opportunity identification by showing what factors influence the identification of sustainable opportunities. This can help us to create awareness among entrepreneurs regarding the effects of entrepreneurial activities on the environment and society; consequently, stimulating entrepreneurs to identify sustainable opportunities.

  2. Just sustainability? sustainability and social justice in professional codes of ethics for engineers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brauer, C.S.

    2013-01-01

    Should environmental, social, and economic sustainability be of primary concern to engineers? Should social justice be among these concerns? Although the deterioration of our natural environment and the increase in social injustices are among today's most pressing and important issues, engineering

  3. Using Four Capitals to Assess Watershed Sustainability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pérez-Maqueo, Octavio; Martinez, M. Luisa; Vázquez, Gabriela; Equihua, Miguel

    2013-03-01

    The La Antigua watershed drains into the Gulf of Mexico and can be considered as one of the most important areas in Mexico because of its high productivity, history, and biodiversity, although poverty remains high in the area in spite of these positive attributes. In this study, we performed an integrated assessment of the watershed to recommend a better direction toward a sustainable management in which the four capitals (natural, human, social, and built) are balanced. We contrasted these four capitals in the municipalities of the upper, middle and lower watershed and found that natural capital (natural ecosystems and ecosystem services) was higher in the upper and middle watershed, while human and social capitals (literacy, health, education and income) were generally higher downstream. Overall, Human Development Index was negatively correlated with the percentage of natural ecosystems in the watershed, especially in the upper and lower watershed regions. Our results indicate that natural capital must be fully considered in projections for increasing human development, so that natural resources can be preserved and managed adequately while sustaining intergenerational well-being.

  4. Engage key social concepts for sustainability

    Science.gov (United States)

    C. C. Hicks; A. Levine; A. Agrawal; X. Basurto; S. J. Breslow; C. Carothers; Susan Charnley; S. Coulthard; N. Dolsak; J. Donatuto; C. Garcia-Quijano; M. B. Mascia; K. Norman; M. R. Poe; T. Satterfield; K. St. Martin; P. S. Levin

    2016-01-01

    With humans altering climate processes, biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystem functions (1), governments and societies confront the challenge of shaping a sustainable future for people and nature. Policies and practices to address these challenges must draw on social sciences, along with natural sciences and engineering (2). Although various social science approaches...

  5. SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leontina Beţianu

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available Sustainability tends to become in the new millennium the most important characteristic of economic and social development. The possibility to ensure economic development in the context of a reasonable use of raw materials, energy and natural resources in general and to decrease the impact of all human activities on the environment makes the essence of the sustainable development of these activities.

  6. The macroecology of sustainability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burger, Joseph R.; Allen, Craig D.; Brown, James H.; Burnside, William R.; Davidson, Ana D.; Fristoe, Trevor S.; Hamilton, Marcus J.; Mercado-Silva, Norman; Nekola, Jeffrey C.; Okie, Jordan G.; Zuo, Wenyun

    2012-01-01

    The discipline of sustainability science has emerged in response to concerns of natural and social scientists, policymakers, and lay people about whether the Earth can continue to support human population growth and economic prosperity. Yet, sustainability science has developed largely independently from and with little reference to key ecological principles that govern life on Earth. A macroecological perspective highlights three principles that should be integral to sustainability science: 1) physical conservation laws govern the flows of energy and materials between human systems and the environment, 2) smaller systems are connected by these flows to larger systems in which they are embedded, and 3) global constraints ultimately limit flows at smaller scales. Over the past few decades, decreasing per capita rates of consumption of petroleum, phosphate, agricultural land, fresh water, fish, and wood indicate that the growing human population has surpassed the capacity of the Earth to supply enough of these essential resources to sustain even the current population and level of socioeconomic development.

  7. Astrobiology, Sustainability and Ethical Perspectives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jacques Arnould

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Astrobiology, a new field of research associating the prospects and constraints of prebiotic chemistry, mineralogy, geochemistry, astrophysics, theoretical physics, microbial ecology, etc., is assessed in terms of sustainability through the scientific and social functions it fulfils, and the limits it encounters or strives to overcome. In the same way as sustainable development, astrobiology must also take into account the temporal dimension specific to its field of investigation and examine its underlying conception of Nature.

  8. Sustainable Innovation of Glass Design and Craft

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sparre-Petersen, Maria

    2014-01-01

    but an ongoing process of re-directing the way we design our world and thereby our future. This approach along with further research into sustainable development within the field of design and combined with material specific methodologies may reveal new possibilities for sustainable as well as aesthetic...... windows to beads. Glass is a natural material and can be found in nature in the form of i.e. obsidian and fulgurites. Glass in itself does not impact the environment negatively, but mining and transportation of raw materials and production of new glass products contributes to CO2 emission. Therefore...

  9. Soil engineering in vivo: harnessing natural biogeochemical systems for sustainable, multi-functional engineering solutions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeJong, Jason T; Soga, Kenichi; Banwart, Steven A; Whalley, W Richard; Ginn, Timothy R; Nelson, Douglas C; Mortensen, Brina M; Martinez, Brian C; Barkouki, Tammer

    2011-01-06

    Carbon sequestration, infrastructure rehabilitation, brownfields clean-up, hazardous waste disposal, water resources protection and global warming-these twenty-first century challenges can neither be solved by the high-energy consumptive practices that hallmark industry today, nor by minor tweaking or optimization of these processes. A more radical, holistic approach is required to develop the sustainable solutions society needs. Most of the above challenges occur within, are supported on, are enabled by or grown from soil. Soil, contrary to conventional civil engineering thought, is a living system host to multiple simultaneous processes. It is proposed herein that 'soil engineering in vivo', wherein the natural capacity of soil as a living ecosystem is used to provide multiple solutions simultaneously, may provide new, innovative, sustainable solutions to some of these great challenges of the twenty-first century. This requires a multi-disciplinary perspective that embraces the science of biology, chemistry and physics and applies this knowledge to provide multi-functional civil and environmental engineering designs for the soil environment. For example, can native soil bacterial species moderate the carbonate cycle in soils to simultaneously solidify liquefiable soil, immobilize reactive heavy metals and sequester carbon-effectively providing civil engineering functionality while clarifying the ground water and removing carbon from the atmosphere? Exploration of these ideas has begun in earnest in recent years. This paper explores the potential, challenges and opportunities of this new field, and highlights one biogeochemical function of soil that has shown promise and is developing rapidly as a new technology. The example is used to propose a generalized approach in which the potential of this new field can be fully realized.

  10. Soil engineering in vivo: harnessing natural biogeochemical systems for sustainable, multi-functional engineering solutions

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeJong, Jason T.; Soga, Kenichi; Banwart, Steven A.; Whalley, W. Richard; Ginn, Timothy R.; Nelson, Douglas C.; Mortensen, Brina M.; Martinez, Brian C.; Barkouki, Tammer

    2011-01-01

    Carbon sequestration, infrastructure rehabilitation, brownfields clean-up, hazardous waste disposal, water resources protection and global warming—these twenty-first century challenges can neither be solved by the high-energy consumptive practices that hallmark industry today, nor by minor tweaking or optimization of these processes. A more radical, holistic approach is required to develop the sustainable solutions society needs. Most of the above challenges occur within, are supported on, are enabled by or grown from soil. Soil, contrary to conventional civil engineering thought, is a living system host to multiple simultaneous processes. It is proposed herein that ‘soil engineering in vivo’, wherein the natural capacity of soil as a living ecosystem is used to provide multiple solutions simultaneously, may provide new, innovative, sustainable solutions to some of these great challenges of the twenty-first century. This requires a multi-disciplinary perspective that embraces the science of biology, chemistry and physics and applies this knowledge to provide multi-functional civil and environmental engineering designs for the soil environment. For example, can native soil bacterial species moderate the carbonate cycle in soils to simultaneously solidify liquefiable soil, immobilize reactive heavy metals and sequester carbon—effectively providing civil engineering functionality while clarifying the ground water and removing carbon from the atmosphere? Exploration of these ideas has begun in earnest in recent years. This paper explores the potential, challenges and opportunities of this new field, and highlights one biogeochemical function of soil that has shown promise and is developing rapidly as a new technology. The example is used to propose a generalized approach in which the potential of this new field can be fully realized. PMID:20829246

  11. Closed Loop Supply Chains for Sustainable Mass Customization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Kjeld; Brunø, Thomas Ditlev

    2013-01-01

    Closed loop supply chains reducing waste, energy consumption and natural resource depletion which all contribute to more sustainable production and products. For mass customization however, the challenges of closed loop supply chains are emphasized by the large variety of inbound end-of-life prod......Closed loop supply chains reducing waste, energy consumption and natural resource depletion which all contribute to more sustainable production and products. For mass customization however, the challenges of closed loop supply chains are emphasized by the large variety of inbound end...

  12. Innovation process and needs of sustainability driven small firms

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Molenaar, N.; Keskin, D.; Diehl, J.C.; Lauche, K.

    2010-01-01

    Traditional approaches to sustainable consumption and production emphasized addressing issues related to the natural environment and sustainability through optimizing existing products, processes and businesses. Even though the conventional wisdom suggests that young and new firms have greater

  13. SUSTAIN: a network model of category learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Love, Bradley C; Medin, Douglas L; Gureckis, Todd M

    2004-04-01

    SUSTAIN (Supervised and Unsupervised STratified Adaptive Incremental Network) is a model of how humans learn categories from examples. SUSTAIN initially assumes a simple category structure. If simple solutions prove inadequate and SUSTAIN is confronted with a surprising event (e.g., it is told that a bat is a mammal instead of a bird), SUSTAIN recruits an additional cluster to represent the surprising event. Newly recruited clusters are available to explain future events and can themselves evolve into prototypes-attractors-rules. SUSTAIN's discovery of category substructure is affected not only by the structure of the world but by the nature of the learning task and the learner's goals. SUSTAIN successfully extends category learning models to studies of inference learning, unsupervised learning, category construction, and contexts in which identification learning is faster than classification learning.

  14. Anaerobic digestion for sustainable development: a natural approach

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gijzen, H.J.

    2002-07-01

    After the discovery of methane gas by Alessandro Volta in 1776, it took about 100 years before anaerobic processes for the treatment of wastewater and sludges were introduced. The development of high rate anaerobic digesters for the treatment of sewage and industrial wastewater took until the nineteen-seventies and for solid waste even till the nineteen-eighties. All digesters have in common that they apply natural anaerobic consortia of microorganisms for degradation and transformation processes. In view of this, it could be rewarding to evaluate the efficiency of natural ecosystems for their possible application. Examples of high rate anaerobic natural systems include the forestomach of ruminants and the hindgut of certain insects, such as termites and cockroaches. These ''natural reactors'' exhibit volumetric methane production rates as high as 35 l/l.d. The development of anaerobic reactors based on such natural anaerobic systems could produce eco-technologies for the effective management of a wide variety of solid wastes and industrial wastewater. Important limitations of anaerobic treatment of domestic sewage relate to the absence of nutrient and pathogen removal. A combination of anaerobic pre-treatment followed by photosynthetic post-treatment is proposed for the effective recovery of energy and nutrients from sewage. This eco-technology approach is based on the recognition that the main nutrient assimilating capacity is housed in photosynthetic plants. The proposed anaerobic-photosynthetic process is energy efficient, cost effective and applicable under a wide variety of rural and urban conditions. In conclusion: a natural systems approach towards waste management could generate affordable eco-technologies for effective treatment and resource recovery. (author)

  15. The development of a sustainable development model framework

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hannoura, Alim P.; Cothren, Gianna M.; Khairy, Wael M.

    2006-01-01

    The emergence of the 'sustainable development' concept as a response to the mining of natural resources for the benefit of multinational corporations has advanced the cause of long-term environmental management. A sustainable development model (SDM) framework that is inclusive of the 'whole' natural environment is presented to illustrate the integration of the sustainable development of the 'whole' ecosystem. The ecosystem approach is an inclusive framework that covers the natural environment relevant futures and constraints. These are dynamically interconnected and constitute the determinates of resources development component of the SDM. The second component of the SDM framework is the resources development patterns, i.e., the use of land, water, and atmospheric resources. All of these patterns include practices that utilize environmental resources to achieve a predefined outcome producing waste and by-products that require disposal into the environment. The water quality management practices represent the third component of the framework. These practices are governed by standards, limitations and available disposal means subject to quantity and quality permits. These interconnected standards, practices and permits shape the resulting environmental quality of the ecosystem under consideration. A fourth component, environmental indicators, of the SDM framework provides a measure of the ecosystem productivity and status that may differ based on societal values and culture. The four components of the SDM are interwoven into an outcome assessment process to form the management and feedback models. The concept of Sustainable Development is expressed in the management model as an objective function subject to desired constraints imposing the required bounds for achieving ecosystem sustainability. The development of the objective function and constrains requires monetary values for ecosystem functions, resources development activities and environmental cost. The

  16. The concept and principles of sustainable architectural design for national parks in Serbia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Milošević Predrag

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper elaborates the concept of sustainable architectural design that has come to the forefront in the last 20 years, and in the light of the National Park. This concept recognizes that human civilization is an integral part of the natural world and that nature must be preserved and perpetuated if the human community itself is to survive. Sustainable design articulates this idea through developments that exemplify the principles of conservation and encourage the application of those principles in our daily lives. A corollary concept, and one that supports sustainable design, is that of bio-regionalism - the idea that all life is established and maintained on a functional community basis and that all of these distinctive communities (bio-regions have mutually supporting life systems that are generally self-sustaining. The concept of sustainable design holds that future technologies must function primarily within bioregional patterns and scales. They must maintain biological diversity and environmental integrity contribute to the health of air, water, and soils, incorporate design and construction that reflect bio-regional conditions, and reduce the impacts of human use. Sustainable design, sustainable development, design with nature environmentally sensitive design, holistic resource management - regardless of what it's called, "sustainability," the capability of natural and cultural systems being continued over time, is the key. Sustainable design must use an alternative approach to traditional design and the new design approach must recognize the impacts of every design choice on the natural and cultural resources of the local, regional, and global environments. Sustainable park and recreation development will succeed to the degree that it anticipates and manages human experiences. Interpretation provides the best single tool for shaping experiences and sharing values. By providing an awareness of the environment, values are taught that are

  17. [Application of synthetic biology to sustainable utilization of Chinese materia medica resources].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Lu-Qi; Gao, Wei; Zhou, Yong-Jin

    2014-01-01

    Bioactive natural products are the material bases of Chinese materia medica resources. With successful applications of synthetic biology strategies to the researches and productions of taxol, artemisinin and tanshinone, etc, the potential ability of synthetic biology in the sustainable utilization of Chinese materia medica resources has been attracted by many researchers. This paper reviews the development of synthetic biology, the opportunities of sustainable utilization of Chinese materia medica resources, and the progress of synthetic biology applied to the researches of bioactive natural products. Furthermore, this paper also analyzes how to apply synthetic biology to sustainable utilization of Chinese materia medica resources and what the crucial factors are. Production of bioactive natural products with synthetic biology strategies will become a significant approach for the sustainable utilization of Chinese materia medica resources.

  18. Assessing Tourists’ Preferences for Recreational Trips in National and Natural Parks as a Premise for Long-Term Sustainable Management Plans

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diana E. Dumitras

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Sustainable tourism management plans rely on relevant and consistent information about factors that can influence the decision to visit a protected area. This paper uses the choice experiment method to investigate tourists’ preferences with regard to recreational trip characteristics in national and natural parks in Romania. An on-site survey questionnaire was administered to visitors. The multinomial logit model was employed to investigate the preference orderings of the identified groups of recreational users. Overall, results indicate that tourists gain benefits after visiting the parks. Main preference differences were found for information sources and location of campsites. Visitors who stated that the park was the main trip destination were willing to have access to more information sources, the marks on trails being insufficient. Camping is preferred only in organized places, expressing the concern for environmental protection. The results of this study have management implications, highlighting the importance of assessing tourists’ preferences as a foundation for developing sustainable tourism strategies.

  19. Comparison of the incidence, nature and cause of injuries sustained on dirt field and artificial turf field by amateur football players

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kordi Ramin

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Data on the incidence, nature, severity and cause of match football injuries sustained on dirt field are scarce. The objectives of this study was to compare the incidence, nature, severity and cause of match injuries sustained on dirt field and artificial turf field by amateur male football players. Methods A prospective two-cohort design was employed. Participants were 252 male football players (mean age 27 years, range 18-43 in 14 teams who participated in a local championship carried on a dirt field and 216 male football players (mean age 28 years, range 17-40 in 12 teams who participated in a local championship carried on a artificial turf field in the same zone of the city. Injury definitions and recording procedures were compliant with the international consensus statement for epidemiological studies of injuries in football. Results The overall incidence of match injuries for men was 36.9 injuries/1000 player hours on dirt field and 19.5 on artificial turf (incidence rate ratio 1.88; 95% CI 1.19-3.05. Most common injured part on dirt field was ankle (26.7% and on artificial turf was knee (24.3%. The most common injury type in the dirt field was skin injuries (abrasion and laceration and in the artificial turf was sprain and ligament injury followed by haematoma/contusion/bruise. Most injuries were acute (artificial turf 89%, dirt field 91% and resulted from player-to-player contact (artificial turf 59.2%, dirt field 51.4%. Most injuries were slight and minimal in dirt field cohort but in artificial turf cohort the most injuries were mild. Conclusions There were differences in the incidence and type of football match injuries sustained on dirt field and artificial turf.

  20. Comparison of the incidence, nature and cause of injuries sustained on dirt field and artificial turf field by amateur football players.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kordi, Ramin; Hemmati, Farajollah; Heidarian, Hamid; Ziaee, Vahid

    2011-02-09

    Data on the incidence, nature, severity and cause of match football injuries sustained on dirt field are scarce. The objectives of this study was to compare the incidence, nature, severity and cause of match injuries sustained on dirt field and artificial turf field by amateur male football players. A prospective two-cohort design was employed. Participants were 252 male football players (mean age 27 years, range 18-43) in 14 teams who participated in a local championship carried on a dirt field and 216 male football players (mean age 28 years, range 17-40) in 12 teams who participated in a local championship carried on a artificial turf field in the same zone of the city. Injury definitions and recording procedures were compliant with the international consensus statement for epidemiological studies of injuries in football. The overall incidence of match injuries for men was 36.9 injuries/1000 player hours on dirt field and 19.5 on artificial turf (incidence rate ratio 1.88; 95% CI 1.19-3.05).Most common injured part on dirt field was ankle (26.7%) and on artificial turf was knee (24.3%). The most common injury type in the dirt field was skin injuries (abrasion and laceration) and in the artificial turf was sprain and ligament injury followed by haematoma/contusion/bruise.Most injuries were acute (artificial turf 89%, dirt field 91%) and resulted from player-to-player contact (artificial turf 59.2%, dirt field 51.4%).Most injuries were slight and minimal in dirt field cohort but in artificial turf cohort the most injuries were mild. There were differences in the incidence and type of football match injuries sustained on dirt field and artificial turf.

  1. Sustainability and sacred values

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Cairns Jr.

    2002-09-01

    Full Text Available Successful implementation of the quest for sustainable use of the planet requires that human society both reexamine and expand present views of what is sacred and what is not. The most important aspect will be going beyond a homocentric focus to a biocentric emphasis. A unifying theme would be the desire to leave a habitable planet for human descendants and those of other species. It is unlikely that society can be confident of achieving sustainability until persuasive evidence supporting this belief has existed for several generations. In order for sustainable use of the planet to persist indefinitely, the conditions essential to this state must be morally preserved on sacred grounds. Viewing natural systems as sacred requires not only preventing damage to them but, wherever possible, repairing damage to them caused by humankind.

  2. Economic interpretation of sustainable development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Birk Mortensen, J.

    1994-01-01

    The economic discussion of sustainable development show that it is possible to define the concept sufficiently precise to introduce it in economic models and to get some policy results. The concept of sustainable development does have meaning and practical implications for economic policy. The relation between sustainability as non-decreasing welfare over time and a non-declining stock of total capital including natural capital is very useful for implementing the concept for actual planning. Even rudimentary empirical measures and test of sustainability can be developed and applied and used in planning and evaluation of performance based on this idea. Weak or strong versions of the concept have been suggested and an interesting and clarifying debate within economics is going on. The debate also demonstrates that when the concept is defined more precisely - differences in opinions, standpoints and policy prescriptions show up. (EG)

  3. Techno-ecological synergy: a framework for sustainable engineering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bakshi, Bhavik R; Ziv, Guy; Lepech, Michael D

    2015-02-03

    Even though the importance of ecosystems in sustaining all human activities is well-known, methods for sustainable engineering fail to fully account for this role of nature. Most methods account for the demand for ecosystem services, but almost none account for the supply. Incomplete accounting of the very foundation of human well-being can result in perverse outcomes from decisions meant to enhance sustainability and lost opportunities for benefiting from the ability of nature to satisfy human needs in an economically and environmentally superior manner. This paper develops a framework for understanding and designing synergies between technological and ecological systems to encourage greater harmony between human activities and nature. This framework considers technological systems ranging from individual processes to supply chains and life cycles, along with corresponding ecological systems at multiple spatial scales ranging from local to global. The demand for specific ecosystem services is determined from information about emissions and resource use, while the supply is obtained from information about the capacity of relevant ecosystems. Metrics calculate the sustainability of individual ecosystem services at multiple spatial scales and help define necessary but not sufficient conditions for local and global sustainability. Efforts to reduce ecological overshoot encourage enhancement of life cycle efficiency, development of industrial symbiosis, innovative designs and policies, and ecological restoration, thus combining the best features of many existing methods. Opportunities for theoretical and applied research to make this framework practical are also discussed.

  4. Sustainability Science: Sustainable Energy for Mobility and Its Use in Policy Making

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fabio Orecchini

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Since the 1980s sustainability has clearly become the challenge of the 21st century. In a process toward a sustainable society it is crucial that different stakeholders start collaboration and exchange ideas with technicians and academics. To finalize the policy decisions on important issues such as energy sustainability, collaboration between policy makers, academia and the private sector is important. This work intends to give Italian policy makers concrete advice and solutions to develop energy systems for mobility. The analysis proceeds from the context of Sustainability Science, a new science, which has emerged as one of the most important disciplines of international scientific research. Using a new approach, trans-disciplinary and integrated, this research is oriented to study and understand the complexity of the interactions between economy, society and nature. This broad approach permits proposing concrete solutions to complex problems locally and globally. We propose a scheme of definition of Sustainability Energy, defining five pillars of reference, and we redefine the energy systems for mobility in the context of Sustainability Science. In this paper, we start from the idea that we are living in a crucial passage, we are moving from the era of petroleum to the era of energy vectors. Energy systems, including mobility, should be redefined within this new approach.

  5. Standards of socially responsible management – Impact on sustainable development of the organization, the social and natural environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anton Peršič

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to outline the results of a study on the importance of the introduction/implementation of standards of socially responsible management and their impact on the business performance of organizations as well as to confirm the correlations with the sustainable development of the broader social and natural environment. The research included a population of medium-sized and large organizations (over 50 employees in the fields of marketing services in the Republic of Slovenia. Research results confirmed a direct link of understanding the management standards in organizations with a larger number of employees and the achieved higher income from operations. Research participants are familiar with the requirements of the Quality Management System Standard ISO 9001 and the Environmental Management System Standard ISO 14001, which is particularly significant for older business executives with many years of work experience in the company they run. The hypothesis that the implementation of the principles of social responsibility has a positive impact on sustainable development and the financial indicators of the organization – higher profits, business growth, productivity and cost-effectiveness in operations – has been confirmed.

  6. Sustainable development indicators for territories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moreau; Sylvain; Bottin, Anne; Bovar, Odile; Nirascou, Francoise; Albecker, Marie-Fleur; Bardou, Magali; Barret, Christophe; Berger, Emmanuel; Blanc, Christophe; Bovar, Odile; Briquel, Vincent; Chery, Jean-Pierre; Deshayes, Michel; Firdion, Laetitia; Fluxa, Christine; Girault, Maurice; Guerrero, David; Hassaine, Zahida; Hilal, Mohamed; Imbert, Frederic; Kerouanton, Marie-Helene; Lacroix, Steve; Magnier, Celine; Moreau, Jacques; Nirascou, Francoise; Pageaud, Dorothee; Schaeffer, Yves; Thienard, Helene; Vinet, Loic; Wemelbeke, Guillaume; Wichmann, Martine; Boitard, Corinne; Bird, Geoffrey

    2011-11-01

    For different themes (Sustainable consumption and production, Knowledge and social and economic development society, governance, climate change and energy management, sustainable transport and modality, conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity and natural resources, public health, risk prevention and management, social and territorial cohesion), this study proposes a set of axis, and several indicators for each axis. Indicators correspond to different geographical scale and are determined from different sources. These indicators are for example: production of aggregates, proportion of organic agriculture in usable agricultural area, evolution in quantity of household waste collected per inhabitant, employment rate, research spending in relation to GDP, coverage of population by local Agenda 21, and so on. Thus, each indicator is discussed, commented and analysed

  7. Not so Simple: The Threats to Leadership Sustainability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bottery, Mike

    2016-01-01

    This article begins by examining the possible meanings of "sustainability," and argues that most meanings are prescriptive rather than descriptive in nature: they tend, either overtly or covertly, to recommend the particular end-states that writers desire. The article then looks at the threats to leadership sustainability, suggesting…

  8. New Partnerships for Sustainability (NEPSUS)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ponte, Stefano; Noe, Christine; Kweka, Opportuna

    New and more complex partnerships are emerging to address the sustainability of natural resource use in developing countries. These partnerships variously link donors, governments, community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), business, certification agencies and other...

  9. Growth, Development and Sustainability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina-Virginia Dragulanescu

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Describing the relationship of interdependence through the materials balance, will be argued how the economy is a subset of the environment and the environment the natural limit to any economic initiative, or the limits imposed by the laws of thermodynamics. The theoretical debate moves, then, from the concept of growth to that of development, understood this in its three dimensions: economic, social, environmental. Bring the different environmental positions in four versions of sustainability, with the gained awareness that it’s “a spectrum of overlapping sustainability positions from very weak to very strong”.

  10. PENERAPAN PRINSIP SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PADA PERANCANGAN PONDOK PESANTREN ENTERPRENEUR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Achmad Siddiq Annur

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Unhealthy competition among economic actors, and exploitation of natural resources without preservation,caused a complicated problem in the community. Poor-quality education, especially in moral and religiouseducation, to be one of the causes of these problems. Therefore, the existence of boarding school as aneducational institution based on Islam is expected to be a solution to decline moral values and religion in thisnation. Through a combination of formal and religious education at a boarding school will provide a strongmental training for the formation of individual intelligent and noble. In addition, a boarding school with speechentrepreneurship curriculum in the education system, can provide an added value to the institution.Prospective employers are responsible for each other and the environment, and economic actors are honestand committed. Entrepreneur Boarding can be part of an effort to maintain the sustainability of resources,both natural and human resources. Sustainable development, as the purpose of the object, is a theme thatdescribes every aspect of the design object. Sustainable development has three principles of sustainability; thenatural environment sustainability, social sustainability and economic sustainability. Starting from the planningof design, the building process, until the use of the building, always accompanied by the consideration of thethree aspects of sustainability. Through the application of sustainable development as the design theme of theboarding school entrepreneurs will produce buildings that are environmentally and socially friendly, in additionto continue to provide investment for owners, users, and the surrounding community.

  11. ANALYSIS ON SUSTAINABILITY OF TOURISM BUSINESS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Faradesi Ardialisa

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available The objectives of the research were to understand indicators of business sustainability tourism from stakeholders’ perspectives in relation to 3P (People, Planet, Profit, to understand how the concept of sustainability is operationalized in the Pancawati group in relation to 3P (People, Planet, Profit, and to map the value chain of Lembur Pancawati as the case in Ecotourism in Bogor. The methodology used was qualitative descriptive practice-oriented business research with single case study. Based on the stakeholder analysis in Bogor tourism, the indicators of sustainable business in tourism are: (i Involvement from local people, (ii Preservation of nature and local culture, (iii Availability of nature Education program, (iv Strong commitment from business owner/leader, (v Sufficient capital to support the initial business establishment, (vi Availability of various networks. The operationalization in Pancawati Group was observed to have item i, iii, and iv partially implemented and the rest was fully implemented. The position of Pancawati Group in value chain was as main firm, as it acted as multiple actors in the chain. In order to have all indicators implemented, it was suggested to have public private partnership in place.Keywords: Sustainable Tourism, Value Chain, Qualitative Methods

  12. Steering sustainability. On the potential of a radical energy tax subsidy scheme to move the Dutch society towards sustainable development in the energy domain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kamminga, K.J.

    2001-01-01

    After an introduction to the issue of sustainable development, relevant aspects of the discussion about sustainable development are discussed. In particular, various perspectives on sustainable development based on different views of nature. However, since sustainable development is such a broad and general concept, narrowing its reach is necessary to enlarge its applicability. From various observations, it is concluded that there are good reasons to focus the sustainable development discussion on the energy domain. First, the existence of sources of potential energy is the basis for all physical activity. Second, fossil fuel reserves -which are by far the most dominant types of energy in the western, industrialized world at present- are limited. Third, the extraction, transportation, use and/or combustion of fossil fuels give rise to serious pressure on the world's natural environment. On a global scale, this particularly concerns the emission of CO2. Starting from a system approach, the relationship between society (the production and consumption system) and nature (the natural system) is dealt with, distinguishing between two relevant views. The first one regards the production and consumption system as separated from, though interacting with, the natural system. Thus, two systems in fact exist next to each other. By contrast, the second view explicitly defines boundaries for the production and consumption system on biophysical grounds. According to this vision, the production and consumption system should be considered a subsystem of the natural system. Chapter 2 offers a first elaboration upon the relation between the two systems. From a historical perspective sustainable development is addressed against the background of the main development in economics over the last three centuries; that is, the development from the physiocrats and the classical economists to the theory of neoclassical economics. The issue of natural resources is chosen as a proxy of

  13. Examining Socio-Economic Aspects of Sustainable Materials Management - Sustainability assessment and economic optimisation modelling

    OpenAIRE

    Hoogmartens, Rob

    2016-01-01

    This dissertation considers Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) as one of the cornerstones of the future green economy. The basic question regarding SMM is how to shift the behaviour of society towards meeting its material needs without destabilising the natural system nor jeopardising its future, in other words: how to preserve natural capital and reduce the environmental impacts of material life cycles. Taking into consideration the difficulty of identifying appropriate SMM policies, thi...

  14. Nepal's agriculture, sustainability and intervention : looking for new directions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Basnyat, B.B.

    1995-01-01

    This study focuses on intervention processes that support sustainable agriculture. It argues that we know very little about how to intervene for sustainable agriculture, particularly for those areas where the Green Revolution has passed almost unnoticed and where degradation of natural

  15. Sustainable Development and Sustainable Growth: Conceptual Plane or Points on a Conceptual Plain?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ulhøi, John Parm; Madsen, Henning

    The world's natural resources are being battered on all fronts. Human activities which consume such resources need to be reconsidered in a way which will allow the regenerative capacity of these assets to function. In view of the potential danger of the concept of sustainable development (SD...

  16. Vietnam war literature: reflections of the sustained tension between politics, history, morality and the effect of war on human nature.

    OpenAIRE

    2007-01-01

    Vietnam War literature is a reflection of a sustained tension between politics and history on the one hand and morality and the effect of the war on human nature on the other hand. Although the authors under discussion urge the reader to forget the political, moral and historical milieu of the Vietnam War, it is impossible to separate the war from those three factors and by extension, the literature that stems from it. I have chosen Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War (1977) and Robert Mason’s Chi...

  17. Sustainability Infused Curriculum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ibarra, D. L.

    2015-12-01

    , bilingual organic farming for primary school students, and opportunities for students to work with outside researchers. There are also specific enrichment courses taught: green chemistry, earth systems, sustainability in a changing world, and natural water systems. Since 2013, senior students have presented at AGU Fall Meetings.

  18. Dematerialization and capital maintenance. Two sides of the sustainability coin

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bartelmus, Peter [Wuppertal Institute, Doppersberg 19, D-42103 Wuppertal (Germany)

    2003-08-01

    The reductionist trend of equating sustainable development with sustained economic growth needs to be reversed. New accounts and balances help to operationalize the elusive notion of sustainability: they provide a coherent picture of the interaction between environment and economy. 'Greened' national accounts measure economic sustainability in terms of (produced and natural) capital maintenance; balances of material flows assess ecological sustainability as the dematerialization of production and consumption. Both concepts aim to preserve environmental assets, but differ in scope, strength and evaluation of sustainability. First results for Germany indicate weak sustainability of the economy; strong sustainability is not in sight because of insufficient reduction of material throughput. Attaining sustainability through integrated policies needs the support of share- and stakeholders of sustainable development.

  19. Dematerialization and capital maintenance. Two sides of the sustainability coin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bartelmus, Peter

    2003-01-01

    The reductionist trend of equating sustainable development with sustained economic growth needs to be reversed. New accounts and balances help to operationalize the elusive notion of sustainability: they provide a coherent picture of the interaction between environment and economy. 'Greened' national accounts measure economic sustainability in terms of (produced and natural) capital maintenance; balances of material flows assess ecological sustainability as the dematerialization of production and consumption. Both concepts aim to preserve environmental assets, but differ in scope, strength and evaluation of sustainability. First results for Germany indicate weak sustainability of the economy; strong sustainability is not in sight because of insufficient reduction of material throughput. Attaining sustainability through integrated policies needs the support of share- and stakeholders of sustainable development

  20. Becoming more sustainable: concepts and issues

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pirages, D C [Maryland Univ., Dep. of Government and Politics, Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda, College Park, MD (United States)

    1996-11-01

    The automobile and associated mobility system have had a major economic and ecological impact on human societies. The industrial revolution, during which the internal combustion engine has played a major role, has shaped secular, materialistic societies and associated consumption patterns that cannot be sustained in a future world of eight billion people. Creating a more sustainable world means maximizing human satisfaction while minimizing human impact on nature. Becoming more sustainable is best envisioned as a continuing process in which constraints and possibilities change over time and space. The sustainable process raises major controversies including how to define and measure progress, how to apportion wealth among generations, and between free trade and environmental preservation. Sustainable mobility implies major changes in approaches to transportation including stressing psychological rather than physical mobility, designing speciality vehicles for emerging niches, and placing special emphasis on mass transit systems for emerging megacities. (author) 17 refs.

  1. Sustainability, glocal development and planetary citizenship. References for a Pedagogy towards Sustainable Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M.ª Ángeles MURGA-MENOYO

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Sustainability approaches advise adopting a glocal development model that links local possibilities and practices to global needs and constraints. The complexity of this phenomenon, taken to the political plane, leads to a model of planetary citizenship where humanity’s commitment to nature and the necessary social equity amongst human beings are emphasized. This has clear implications for pedagogy, which this paper aims to highlight. This work starts from the sustainable development scenarios and concludes with a proposal of a planetary citizenship rooted locally. Glocality and planetary citizenship, a concept close to that of cosmopolitan citizenship –once stripped of its anthropocentric connotations–, both lead to significant missions of education in this framework: the formation of a holistic worldview, based on a complex-system thinking, and building a planetary citizenship. In both cases, the consideration of the human as an eco-dependent being, attributes nature an essential position in the educational processes.

  2. Strategic Environmental Assessment and Sustainable Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, Mingjing; Gao, Qingjun; Wang, Nan; Yang, Xigen; Xu, Xin; Zhang, Lu

    2018-04-01

    The development of social science and technology economy, the international community more and more attention to environmental and development issues. So the main goal pursued by people is not only to meet the needs of social and natural resources, while at the same time being able to protect the needs of future generations. This is the path of sustainable development. Therefore, this paper is a detailed study of strategic environmental assessment and sustainable development.

  3. TOURISM AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gina Ionela Butnaru

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Tourism and sustainable development are the subject of many initiatives and public or private debates in Romania. The main problem to which these initiatives try to find an answer is mostly related to the income generation for the local communities by using rationally and efficiently the local potential, in agreement with the economic, social, natural, and cultural factors. Consequently, some measures should be taken, and the tourist sector as a whole needs all the methods of sustainable development: new technologies, change of social behaviour, change of environmental legislation, methods of environmental management, better planning and development of control procedures. In this article, we presented a model of tourism development which should be applied in all the regions of great tourist attraction, and we realised a synthesis of the socio-economic advantages of sustainable tourism.

  4. Education for Sustainability: Assessing Pathways to the Future

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huckle, John

    2014-01-01

    In this paper John Huckle reflects on the outlook of environmental education based on conferences in 1972 and 1992 regarding the lack of sustainable development being realized. Huckle points "education for sustainability" along a pathway provided by critical theory and pedagogy and uses theory to examine the nature of ecological crisis,…

  5. Sustainability of biomass for cofiring

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2014-02-01

    There are many items to include when considering the sustainability of biomass for cofiring, and some of them are hard to quantify. The focus of this report is on the greenhouse gas emission aspects of sustainability. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions achieved by substituting biomass for coal depends on a number of factors such as the nature of the fossil fuel reference system, the source of the biomass, and how it is produced. Relevant issues in biomass production include the energy balance, the greenhouse gas balance, land use change, non-CO2 greenhouse gas emission from soils, changes to soil organic carbon, and the timing of emissions and removal of CO2 which relates to the scale of biomass production. Certification of sustainable biomass is slow to emerge at the national and international level, so various organisations are developing and using their own standards for sustainable production. The EU does not yet have sustainability standards for solid biomass, but the UK and Belgium have developed their own.

  6. Exploring Sustainability Using images from Space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Loris; Salmon, Jennifer; Burns, Courtney

    2016-04-01

    Sustainability is the integrating theme of grade 8 science at Dwight D. Eisenhower in Wyckoff, New Jersey. With a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), sustainability establishes relevance for students, connects course work to current news topics, and ties together trimester explorations of earth science, physical science, and life science. Units are organized as problem-based learning units centered on disciplinary core ideas. Sustainability education empowers students to think about human and natural systems on a broader scale as they collaboratively seek solutions to scientific or engineering problems. The STEM-related sustainability issues encompass both global and local perspectives. Through problem solving, students acquire and demonstrate proficiency in the three-dimensions of Next Generation Science Standards (disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts). During the earth science trimester, students explore causes, effects, and mitigation strategies associated with urban heat islands and climate change. As a transition to a trimester of chemistry (physical science), students investigate the sustainability of mobile phone technology from raw materials mining to end-of-life disposal. Students explore natural resource conservation strategies in the interdisciplinary context of impacts on the economy, society, and environment. Sustainability creates a natural context for chemical investigations of ocean-atmosphere interactions such as ocean acidification. Students conclude the eighth grade with an investigation of heredity and evolution. Sustainability challenges embedded in genetics studies include endangered species management (California condors) and predicting the effects of climate change on populations in specific environments (Arctic and Antarctic regions). At Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School, science students have access to a variety of web-enabled devices (e.g., Chromebooks

  7. Bioarchitecture - a new vision of energy sustainable cities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krzemińska, Alicja; Zaręba, Anna; Dzikowska, Anna

    2017-11-01

    Transformation of the natural environment will press the humanity to search for the new look at the problems of architecture and urban design. Nowadays passive houses construction is a standard and green roofs are incorporated in the design of contemporary cities. That's why city cluster will be successively transformed into sustainable bionic systems, which allows to protect the nature and stop further degradation and exploitation of public green space. The good examples of contemporary trend of designing in harmony with nature are energy sustainable underground buildings of Malcolm Wells, who in 60s designed his first energy sufficient construction. The underground cities and rock houses were built from the early beginning of architecture, with significant examples of cities: Sanmenxia in China in Henan Province, Matmata (Tunisia), Cappadocia (Turkey), Uplisciche (Georgia) or Brlhovce (Slovakia) etc. The underground buildings and cities, blending in with the background of topography, have a positive influence on the landscape and are energy sustainable. Climate responsive design materials create effective insulation, which allows to maintain the stable temperature inside the buildings. Bioarchitecture improves the microclimate in the neighborhood through increasing oxygen concentration in atmosphere and limiting of CO2 emission. Bioarchitecture represents new direction in changing the design priorities towards being closer with nature and it's needs.

  8. Some Theories Of Environmental Sustainability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina-Virginia Dragulanescu

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with the arguments with which the neoclassical have approached the problems of sustainability, giving life to that branch of political economy that studies the problems related to the use of natural resources and environmental externalities. Environmental Economics studies, insights and additions that bind knowledge economy with the application of economic theory to environmental problems seek to provide in this paper an comprehensive framework and as exhaustive as possible of speculations around the concept of sustainability. We highlight, also, how environmental aspects are processed within a defined perimeter of economic instruments to defend the neoclassical orthodoxy in front of the market failure and to support the undertaking of a path of development that is sustainable.

  9. Can New Perspectives on Sustainability Drive Lifestyles?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Constança Belchior

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available Understanding sustainability engages multiple views in a wide spectrum of technological, social and political positions. Over the last two decades it appears that an evolutionary process reflects a changing sustainability paradigm. At the basis of this changing paradigm remain strong principles of dematerialization, reflected in cuts in natural resource consumption, changing pathways to overcome lock-ins, mastering the art of economic innovation with ecological principles. This may engage new consumption attitudes and behavior. This review paper adopts a holistic and integrated sustainability perspective, suggesting a mix-and-match approach to engage more context specific designs for sustainability to look into principles of consumption behavior and people’s motivation in choosing their lifestyle.

  10. Oral sustained release tablets of zidovudine using binary blends of natural and synthetic polymers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Emeje, Martins; Olaleye, Olajide; Isimi, Christiana; Fortunak, Joseph; Byrn, Stephen; Kunle, Olobayo; Ofoefule, Sabinus

    2010-01-01

    Oral sustained release matrix tablets of zidovudine (ZDV) were prepared using different types, proportions and blends of carbopol 71G (C71) and a plant gum obtained from Abelmoschus esculentus (AEG). The effect of various formulation factors like polymer proportion, polymer type and pH of the dissolution medium on the in vitro release of the drug was studied, using the half change technique, in 900 ml of dissolution medium, at 100 rpm. Release kinetics were analyzed using Zero-order, Higuchi's square-root and Ritger-Peppas' empirical equations. In vitro release performance as revealed by the time taken for 70% of the drug to be released (t70%), showed that the release rate decreased with increase in polymer proportion. Matrix tablets containing 10 and 20% AEG were found to exhibit immediate-release characteristics. Matrix tablets containing 30% AEG showed t70% value of 204 min and extended the release up to 5 h, while matrix tablets containing 30% carbopol showed t70% value of 234 min and extended the release up to 6 h. Three blends of AEG and C71 at the ratio of 1:2, 2:1 and 1:3 showed t70% values of 132, 312 and 102 min respectively and extended the release up to 8 h. Mathematical analysis of the release kinetics indicated that the nature of drug release from the matrix tablets followed Fickian and anomalous release. Drug release from matrix tablets of zidovudine containing blends of AEG and C71 demonstrates the advantage of blending a natural and synthetic polymer over single polymer use.

  11. Proceedings of the 1999 Sustainable Forest Management Network conference: science and practice : sustaining the boreal forest

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Veeman, S.; Smith, D.W.; Purdy, B.G.; Salkie, F.J.; Larkin, G.A. [eds.

    1999-05-01

    The wide range and complex nature of research in sustainable forest management, supported cooperatively by the forest products industry, governments, the universities, First Nations and other groups, is reflected in the 128 papers presented at this conference. The range of topics discussed include historical perspectives of forest disturbances, including fires and harvesting, biological diversity, gaseous, liquid and solid wastes, community sustainability, public involvement, land aquatic interfaces, forest management planning tools, contaminant transfer, First Nations issues, certification, monitoring and resource trade-offs. The theme of the conference {sup S}cience and practice: sustaining the boreal forest` was selected to identify the key efforts of the Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Network on boreal forest research. The objective of the conference was to exchange knowledge and integrate participants into a better working network for the improvement of forest management. refs., tabs., figs.

  12. FORMS OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM SUITABLE TO APUSENI MOUNTAINS, ROMANIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bac Dorin Paul

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Sustainable tourism is the result of the melange between tourism and sustainable tourism. The concept has evolved during the last decades of the twentieth century, in international conferences, summits etc. organized by the World Tourism Organization, the United Nations and other international organizations where it was defined, characterized and criticized. Unfortunately, the concept was not able to overcome its theoretical conceptualization and it did not reach practitioners of the tourism industry. Sustainable tourism has several forms which are actually practiced by tourists all over the world: ecotourism, backpacking, rural tourism, nature-based tourism, pro-poor tourism, volunteer tourism etc. In the present paper, we have focused on an area in Apuseni Mountains, Romania. We tried to identify the forms of sustainable tourism most suitable for this area considering: natural resources, socio-economical development, protected areas, gastronomic traditions etc. After considering all these we have selected three forms: ecotourism, volunteer tourism and slow tourism, which could have the highest impact in promoting this area, and actually all the Apuseni Mountains as an important destination for sustainable tourism. The arguments for ecotourism are based on the numerous natural tourism resources> caves, gorges, forests and wildlife. Volunteers are needed especially in conservation and English language course. For slow tourism, there are numerous trails for walking and biking. Also there are several foods, mainly based on milk and wild berries that should be promoted and sold under the slow food brand. The shortcomings of the research are the lack of quantitative and qualitative results, as there is no information regarding the number of tourists which visit the area during each year. Also, it is hard to compare the benefits of sustainable tourism with those of mass tourism, due to the lack of references. So it is harder to argue for sustainable

  13. Implementing sustainable development programs in Chicago

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Henderson, H.

    1994-12-31

    Achieving sustainable development requires a revision of the present view of the nature of the city as an environment, and its relation to a larger ecosystem of which it is an essential part. The environmental health of a wilderness area is inextricably related to the environmental, and economic, health of the great urban centers. The vitality of dense metropolitan areas, where population and economic activities are concentrated, is key to the preservation of productive farm lands, wildlife habitat, and open spaces. The social and economic crisis which grips many metropolitan centers, with attendant flight of industry and development to the so-called {open_quotes}greenfields,{close_quotes} fundamentally spreads a broader crisis to our common ecosystem. This crisis is marked by the obliteration of habitat necessary for biodiversity, loss of fertile farm land, and the contamination of air, water and land, as an unescapable effect of the sprawl created by flight from the urban centers. The removal of false conceptual distinctions between the city and nature, distinctions that are unfortunately at the heart of so much of American environmental philosophy, is key to the concept of `sustainable development.` This article sets forth how the City of Chicago is implementing this understanding of the nature of the urban environment, in pursuit of sustainable development within the city.

  14. Implementing sustainable development programs in Chicago

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henderson, H.

    1994-01-01

    Achieving sustainable development requires a revision of the present view of the nature of the city as an environment, and its relation to a larger ecosystem of which it is an essential part. The environmental health of a wilderness area is inextricably related to the environmental, and economic, health of the great urban centers. The vitality of dense metropolitan areas, where population and economic activities are concentrated, is key to the preservation of productive farm lands, wildlife habitat, and open spaces. The social and economic crisis which grips many metropolitan centers, with attendant flight of industry and development to the so-called open-quotes greenfields,close quotes fundamentally spreads a broader crisis to our common ecosystem. This crisis is marked by the obliteration of habitat necessary for biodiversity, loss of fertile farm land, and the contamination of air, water and land, as an unescapable effect of the sprawl created by flight from the urban centers. The removal of false conceptual distinctions between the city and nature, distinctions that are unfortunately at the heart of so much of American environmental philosophy, is key to the concept of 'sustainable development.' This article sets forth how the City of Chicago is implementing this understanding of the nature of the urban environment, in pursuit of sustainable development within the city

  15. Competitiveness and Exports Sustainability of the Indonesian Natural Rubber

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rumbiati Kamaludin

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines Indonesian competitiveness in export of natural rubber commodities by employing set of revealed comparative advantage (RCA and Export competitive index (ECI with respect to global trade. The market structure that is formed on natural rubber commodities is calculated using Herfindahl Index and Concentration Ratio analysis tools shows the oligopoly-shaped market structure. Calculation of comparative advantage with RCA analysis shows that the four countries exporting natural rubber, namely Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam each have a comparative advantage. Where Indonesia has a better comparative advantage than Thailand in the period 2011 to 2015. This result is different from the calculations made on competitive advantage (ECI in which Indonesia's natural rubber commodities are not more competitive than Thailand

  16. Fragile Social Norms: (Un Sustainable Exploration of Forest Products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Decio Zylbersztajn

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The exhaustion of natural resources is a central problem in the international agenda. The particular case of Amazon forest is at the top on the international environmental debate. Two related problems are keys to be considered in the discussion of sustainable development in this region. First the predatory use of the natural resources of the forest mainly timber and genetic resources. Second the recognition of the existence of a population of around 20 million inhabitants in the region defined as “Legal Amazon Area”, aiming the improvement on the living conditions, enhancement of income level and acceleration of development. How to match both objectives is a puzzle faced by the present generation.The region is populated by initiatives of international non-governmental-organizations, most of them carrying good intentions but lacking the necessary knowledge on local formal and informal institutions to find ways to reach sustainable development. The result is the accelerated process of natural resources depletion, and social disorganization. The case of the production of Brazilian Nuts stands as a corollary of the lack of an institutional structure of property rights that does not provide incentives for sustainable development. The opposite effect is being observed as a result of the fragility of observable institutional arrangements.The case provides the counterfactual for the analysis of Ostrom (1990; 2008, where she presents virtuous cases of sustainable exploration of natural resources, mostly based on informal but solid institutions.

  17. Social indicators of sustainable building; Soziale Indikatoren des nachhaltigen Bauens

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Greiff, Rainer

    2012-06-15

    As a result of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro (''Earth Summit'') the participating nations agreed upon principles of sus-tainable development and objectives for sustainable development - the so called ''Agenda 21'' - to be pursued by national sustainability strategies and be monitored by systems of appropriate relative indicators. The participants shared the awareness that ecological objectives aiming at the global preservation of the natural resources can be achieved only if sustainable economic and social developments are considered together. Unlike the ecological demands of protection of climate and resources, for which evidence can be provided by natural sciences and that can be substantiated by figures, a common under-standing of the social dimension of sustainability has not yet emerged. The same is true for the concept of ''sustainable building''. In the guideline ''Sustainable Building'' published by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing in 2001, essential instructions regarding the implementation of ob-jectives for ecological construction were compiled for use in practice. This guideline is now to be supplemented by objectives of social sustainability. As a basis for common understanding a definition of the social aspects of sustainable building will be brought forward, which is expected to be broadly acknowledged. Furthermore indicators for the social dimension of sustainability were to be developed so that the observance of socio-cultural aspects of sustainability may be operationalised for new construction as well as refurbishment.

  18. ROLE OF NATURAL POLYMER IN SUSTAINED AND CONTROLLED RELEASE

    OpenAIRE

    Vaishali S. Kadam, G. R. Shendarkar

    2017-01-01

    Now a day there has been an important development in different dosage forms for existing and newly designed drugs and natural products, and synthetic as well as semi-synthetic excipients always need to be used for a variety of purposes. Gums and mucilages are widely used as natural materials for conventional and novel dosage forms. With the increasing interest in polymers of natural origin, the pharmaceutical world has compliance to use most of them in their formulations. Moreover, the tremen...

  19. Learning from Laotzi: Daoism and Sustainability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nancy Volkman

    2004-12-01

    Full Text Available Tao is the source of ten thousand things ... The ten thousand things carry yin and embrace yang. They achieve harmony by combining these forces ... The ten thousand things are born of being. Being is born of not being. (From verses 40, 42 and 62 Many scholars have observed that realisation of the concept of sustainability, as a process of human interaction with the natural world, will require a paradigmatic change in world view (Lee et al, 2000; Van der Ryn, 1996. This need for change is particularly true in so-called Western thought, which, historically, has had a mechanistic view of the interrelationships between people and their world, whether cultural or natural. This view has contributed to a problem-solving, expediency-based, and short-term- gain perspective that makes sustainability, in the holistic sense, impossible in the modern world. This paper examines an alternative philosophic system that can be used to look beyond traditional European/modern approaches and to allow the achievement of real sustainability. The Chinese philosophy of Daoism (Taoism and the three principal areas in which it can be used to reframe contemporary perceptions of the natural and cultural world is the approach discussed here. Specifically, I discuss Daoism as a philosophy, as literature and as artistic inspiration, all in the context of environmental sustainability. Daoism emerged out of traditional Chinese animistic beliefs and geomantic practices about 2,300 years ago, when the teachings of one Laotzi (Lao-tzu were recorded as the Daodejing (Tao Te Ching, or, as sometimes translated into English, The Way and Its Power (Clarke, 2000; Fenton et al, 1983; Palmer, 1991. Daoism, in its ritualistic, religious form, first became widely known in Euro-American thought in the nineteenth century. When, in the 1960s, numerous translations of the Daodejing and other Daoist texts became popularised by writers such as Alan Watts, the more direct philosophical

  20. Development and in vitro evaluation of diclofenac sodium loaded mucoadhesive microsphere with natural gum for sustained delivery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amin, Md Lutful; Jesmeen, Tasbira; Sutradhar, Kumar Bishwajit; Mannan, Md Abdul

    2013-12-01

    The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate mucoadhesive microsphere of diclofenac sodium with natural gums for sustained delivery. Guar gum and tragacanth were used along with sodium alginate as mucoadhesive polymers. Microspheres were formulated using orifice-ionic gelation method. Particle size, surface morphology, swelling study and drug entrapment efficiency of the prepared microspheres were determined. In vitro evaluation was carried out comprising of mucoadhesion and drug release study. The prepared microspheres were discrete and free flowing. Sodium alginate and natural gum, at a ratio of 1:0.25, showed good mucoadhesive property and they had high drug entrapment efficiencies. They also exhibited the best rate retarding effect among all the formulations. Drug entrapment efficiency of all the microspheres ranged from 80.42% to 91.67%. An inverse relationship was found between extent of crosslinking and drug release rate. Release rate was slow and extended in case of the formulations of 1:0.25 ratio (F1 and F3), releasing 68.36% and 70.56% drug respectively after 8 hours. Tragacanth-containing microspheres of F1 showed superiority over other formulations, with best mucoadhesive and rate retarding profile. The correlation value (r(2)) indicated that the drug release of all the formulations followed Higuchi's model. Overall, the results indicated that mucoadhesive microspheres containing natural gum can be promising in terms of prolonged delivery with good mucoadhesive action, targeting the absorption site to thrive oral drug delivery.

  1. 48 CFR 970.5223-7 - Sustainable acquisition program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... preferable and sustainable manner that will promote the natural environment and protect the health and well... contract, the Contractor shall provide its services in a manner that promotes the natural environment... Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) the Green Electronics Council site. (6) Green house gas...

  2. 48 CFR 952.223-78 - Sustainable acquisition program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... preferable and sustainable manner that will promote the natural environment and protect the health and well... contract, the Contractor shall provide its services in a manner that promotes the natural environment... Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) the Green Electronics Council site. (6) Green house gas...

  3. Sustainable urban spaces: Ecological parks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Burçak Erdoğan Onur

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Rapidly depleted resources with technological and economic developments which increased in recent years has led to deterioration of the natural balance in the world. Urban ecosystems is considerably changed, especially with population growth and intensive construction in the city. This situation, as such in all other areas, urban ecosystems are also increasing their sustainability concerns. More compatible solution with the natural process in landscape design and management have to be brought. This article describes the conceptual structure of ecological park that has become a tool for sustainable urban target in community that matured of environmental awareness. Also planning, design and management principles are explained by supporting with application examples. The obtained results within the framework, it is aimed to create a source for similar applications that will lead to spread in our country. In addition, it is put forward suggestions for dissemination of such practices.

  4. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIC FACTOR IN THE ENERGY INDUSTRY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CÎRNU Doru

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available We propose to conceive an environmental strategy intended to integrate harmoniously Gorj energy industry with principles of sustainable development. The sustainable development complies trinomial: ecological-economic-social. In our view, sustainable development, requires clean water and unpolluted air, land consolidated rejuvenated forests, biodiversity and protected nature reserves, churches and monasteries secular admired by visitors, welcoming places entered in the natural and cultural harmony. It is also necessary to reduce the pressure generated by socio-economic factors on the environment and the principles of sustainable development. The quality of life in urban and rural areas show extreme differences compared to European standards. For efficiency, we addressed the modeling method by designing a model valid for all thermoelectric power plants based on fossil fuels, allowing simultaneously, so adding value and environmental protection. The general objective that we propose for the environment, natural resources and patrimony, is related to the prevention of climate change by limiting the emission of toxic gases and their adverse effects on the environment The achievement of strategic objectives and implementation of proposals submitted, we consider that would have a double impact, on the one side, to protect the environment and the quality of life and, on the other side a positive influence on economic and social level.

  5. Towards a sustainable Asia. Environment and climate change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2011-07-01

    This series of books are the output of the research project called ''Sustainable Development in Asia (SDA)'', which was initiated by the Association of Academies of Sciences in Asia (AASA). They are comprised of one synthesis report, which entitled ''Towards a Sustainable Asia: Green Transition and Innovation'', and four thematic reports on natural resources, energy, the environment and climate change, and culture from particular perspectives of agriculture. They aim to: (1) investigate common sustainability issues faced by all Asian countries, including population increase, poverty alleviation, pollution control, ecological restoration, as well as regional problems, such as water shortage in West and Central Asia, energy security in Northeast Asia, development model and transformation in East Asia; (2) analyze and summarize of best practices towards sustainable development in Asia; (3) bring forward suggestions and policy options for promoting green transition, system innovation and sustainable development of Asia. With best practice guidelines for a sustainable Asia, this series of reports, for the first time systematically address the common challenges and regional problems in regard to Asia's natural resources use, pollution reduction and climate protection, sustainable energy development, and innovations for environment-friendly and culture-compatible agriculture. They will provide handy and useful information to researchers, government policy makers and the general public who have concerns about Asia's sustainable development. AASA is a scientific and technological organization in Asia, established in 2000, comprising of 26 member academies all over Asia. Its vision is to provide a forum for the discussion of all issues relevant to science and technology development and its application on national level within Asia. (orig.)

  6. Regional sustainable development strategy for the Athabasca Oil Sands area

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-07-01

    The Regional Sustainable Development Strategy (RSDS) provides a framework for balancing development with environmental protection. This provisional direction for sustainable resource management was confirmed in a March 1999 policy document. It is as follows: the use of Alberta's natural resources shall be sustainable, the management of Alberta's natural resources shall support and promote the Alberta economy, Alberta's environment shall be protected, resources shall be managed on an integrated basis, and Alberta's natural resources shall be managed for multiple benefits. The focus of the RSDS is to address the need to balance resource development and environmental protection. The report covers: an overview, the Regional Sustainable Development Strategy and the RSDS management model. Blueprints for action concerning the impacts of oilsands development are provided under 14 themes, including 1) cumulative impacts on wildlife, fish habitat and populations, surface and groundwater quality and 2) human health effects of air emissions and effects of air emissions on wildlife and vegetation. The RSDS will apply provincial and federal policy, legislation, standards and programs in a regional context, including principles in the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) Harmonization Accord

  7. Multiple helix ecosystems for sustainable competitiveness

    CERN Document Server

    Ferreira, João; Farinha, Luís; Fernandes, Nuno

    2016-01-01

    This book discusses the main issues, challenges, opportunities, and trends involving the interactions between academia, industry, government and society. Specifically, it aims to explore how these interactions enhance the ways in which companies deliver products and services in order to achieve sustainable competitiveness in the marketplace. Sustainable competitiveness has been widely discussed by academics and practitioners, considering the importance of protecting the environment while sustaining the economic goals of organizations. The Quintuple Helix innovation model is a framework for facilitating knowledge, innovation and sustainable competitive advantage. It embeds the Triple and the Quadruple Helix models by adding a fifth helix, the “natural environment.” The Triple Helix model focuses on the university-industry-government triad, while the Quadruple adds civil society (the media- and culture-driven public) as a fourth helix. The Quintuple Helix model facilitates research, public policy, and pract...

  8. Natural Resources Accounting and Sustainable Development: The ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    gold

    2012-07-26

    Jul 26, 2012 ... Development: The Challenge to Economics and Accounting ... The United Nations Statistical Office published a system of national account .... environment in national accounts provides information on the use of natural .... environmental impact and aspects of an organization, including implications for cash ...

  9. [Socioenvironmental dilemmas of sustainable development].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torres, H D

    1992-01-01

    The literature on sustainable development published in advance of the 1992 United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro, focuses on the social politics of the environment and the problems of the correlation of population and the environment. There is an intense preoccupation with the Brazilian environmental agenda and excessive treatment of topics related to the natural environment and the tropical forest of the Amazon. The fact that 75% of the Brazilian population lives in urban areas is ignored. Some works maintain that there is profound division between the conservators of the contemporary predatory and wasteful civilization and those progressive forces that point to the direction of a socially just and ecologically sustainable civilization. Issues that cannot be reduced to environmental questions have come into the forefront in recent years: race, gender, human rights, and pacifism. The question of population growth and pressure on the finite resources have also forcefully featured in debates. The sociology of environment submits that the contemporary civilization cannot be sustained in the medium or long term because of exponential population growth, spatial concentration of the population, depletion of natural resources, systems of production that utilized polluting technologies and low energy efficiency, and values that encourage unlimited material consumption.

  10. FY 2017 Site Sustainability Plan

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pope, Jason E.

    2016-11-30

    For more than 50 years, the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has advanced the frontiers of science and technology through courageous discovery and innovation. Our multidisciplinary team of more than 4,400 scientists, engineers, and support professionals is tackling global sustainability challenges in our science, energy, environmental, and security missions. For example, our research on how human and natural systems interact is critical to informing sustainable solutions to the nation’s energy and environmental challenges. PNNL is equally committed to sustainability right here at home, and we are making excellent progress toward the goals described in this plan. We are working on ongoing challenges, such as reducing the energy required to meet our research mission and promoting conservation among our employees.

  11. Promoting sustainability through green chemistry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kirchhoff, Mary M. [American Chemical Society, 1155 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036 (United States)

    2005-06-15

    Green chemistry is an important tool in achieving sustainability. The implementation of green chemistry, the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances, is essential if the expanding global population is to enjoy an increased standard of living without having a negative impact on the health of the planet. Cleaner technologies will allow the chemical enterprise to provide society with the goods and services on which it depends in an environmentally responsible manner. Green chemistry provides solutions to such global challenges as climate change, sustainable agriculture, energy, toxics in the environment, and the depletion of natural resources. A collaborative effort by industry, academia, and government is needed to promote the adoption of the green chemistry technologies necessary to achieve a sustainable society.

  12. Is Environmental Dematerialization An Active Factor Of The Sustainable Development?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florin Razvan BĂLĂȘESCU

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available As it is known, sustainable development reveals economic, social and ecologic aspects circumscribed to the sustainability of the stock of natural capital and to the energy matter entropic flows which affects the relation environment-economy-society in terms of externalities and of the socio-industrial metabolism. Thus, taking into account the principles of the technical-economic rationality and integrative socio-ecologic complexity, dematerialization is a concept, an instrument and a vector carrying socio-economic values based on the natural and social sciences. In this framework environmental dematerialization reveals the issue of socio- economic energetic centres - a result of relationship between nature and human rational sensible free will determinism.

  13. Strategic Management of Nature-Based Tourism in Ijen Crater in the Context of Sustainable Tourism Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandra Dhesitta Putri

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the study is to define the strategic management of nature based tourism in Ijen crater, East Java. From the perspectives of accessibility, problems facing by accessibility are related to the travel distance and forest road quality. Ijen craters have three important aspect in competitiveness tourism aspect, namely something to see (mountain landscape, something to do (trekking, hiking, bird watching, and something to buy (meals. The future development of such attraction should be meets ecotourism principles. This study found that improving tourism facility and infrastructure were important aspects. The development and improvement of tourism facility and infrastructure, however, should be incorporates ecotourism principles. In such a case, the conservation, local people and community development becomes crucial issue. Involvement of stakeholder and local community in facility and infrastructure will increase the quality and sustainability of infrastructure and tourism facility. Keywords: ecotourism strategy, tourism management.

  14. BIOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS AND ACADEMIC LIBRARIES: A PROPOSAL BEYOND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcos Felipe Gonçalves Maia

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Environmentalism and ecology have gained ground in the discussions and in the daily practices of university libraries. Objective: To describe the importance of integrating metadata records of biological collections in the catalogs of libraries of UFT as an action "environmentally contextualized" beyond sustainable development. Methodology: descriptive and explanatory research with a qualitative approach with data collection through bibliographical and documentary research. Theoretical reading through Jacques Derrida's deconstructionism. Results: The concepts of sustainable development, institutional sustainability and information ecology have been used by information professionals in an uncritical manner, without regard to its marketing perspective and maintaining the operating system of exploration of the nature. Conclusions: if informational professionals intend to participate in the concern/preservation for nature should be alert to develop actions beyond sustainable development. Should help local knowledge construction process and help in building information utilization through their daily practices.

  15. Biomimicry: Descriptive analysis of biodiversity strategy adoption for business sustainable performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sivave Mashingaidze

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Biomimicry is a novel interdisciplinary field that mimics nature’s best ideas and processes to solve human problems. The objective of this article was to do a descriptive documentary analysis of literature in biodiversity and to recommend for business adoption as a sustainable performance strategy. The research was however based on nine (9 Life’s Principles, which were candidly inspired by nature. The research findings indicated that most business theories and strategies can mimic perfunctorily from nature for them to achieve a sustainable performance. The research was quite a conceptual and therefore did not offer direct practical proposition because its value was a descriptive of the ideas and strategies from nature and to outline its fundamental principles since biodiversity has track record of sustainability without men’s interference which humanity can also mimic

  16. Emulating natural disturbance regimes: an emerging approach for sustainable forest management

    Science.gov (United States)

    M. North; W Keeton

    2008-01-01

    Sustainable forest management integrates ecological, social, and economic objectives. To achieve the former, researchers and practitioners are modifying silvicultural practices based on concepts from successional and landscape ecology to provide a broader array of ecosystem functions than is associated with conventional approaches. One...

  17. Biomimicry : "Learning from nature for sustainable solutions"

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gallo, M.

    There is more to be learned from nature as a whole. In practice ‘nature’ is often used in teaching, training, consultancy and organisational development as a metaphor, as a source of inspiration or as an example for all kinds of processes, including leadership, cooperation, relationships and the

  18. The sustainability indicators of power production systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Onat, Nevzat [Vocational School of Technical Studies, Marmara University, Istanbul 34722 (Turkey); Bayar, Haydar [Technical Education Faculty, Marmara University, Istanbul 34722 (Turkey)

    2010-12-15

    One of the most important elements of economical and social development is to provide uninterrupted electric energy to consumers. The increasing world population and technological developments rapidly increase the demand on electric energy. In order to meet the increasing demand for sustainable development, it is necessary to use the consumable resources of the world in the most productive manner and minimum level and to keep its negative effects on human health and environment in the lowest level as much as possible. In this study, alignment of hydrogen fuel cells, hydroelectric, wind, solar and geothermal sourced electric energy systems, in addition to fossil fueled coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants, in respect to sustainability parameters such as CO{sub 2} emission, land use, energy output, fresh water consumption and environmental and social effects is researched. Consequently, it has been determined that the wind and nuclear energy power plants have the highest sustainability indicators. The fuel cells that use hydrogen obtained by using coal and natural gas are determined as the most disadvantageous transformation technologies in respect to sustainability. This study contains an alignment related to today's technologies. Using of renewable energy resources especially in production of hydrogen, output increases to be ensured with nanotechnology applications in photovoltaic systems may change this alignment. (author)

  19. Multi-dimensional sustainability framework to evaluate forest and wood energy production; Moniulotteinen kestaevyyden arviointikehikko puuenergian tuotannolle

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Leskinen, P.; Kaehkoenen, T.; Laehtinen, K.; Pasanen, K.; Pitkaenen, S.; Sironen, S.; Myllyviita, T.; Sikanen, L.; Asikainen, A.

    2012-02-15

    The future economy will be more and more dependent on the sustainable use of natural resources, at least if the views on the importance and possibilities of the bioeconomy are realized in practice. The sustainability of the use of natural resources has previously been studied from the perspective of ecological sustainability in particular. Social sustainability has also been examined in several studies. On the other hand, economic sustainability is a prerequisite for developing business activities. As defining and framing of cultural sustainability is challenging, up to now it has only been discussed to some extent, although the importance of cultural sustainability has not been understated. When developing the sustainability of the use of natural resources, all the above-mentioned dimensions of sustainability are present in parallel and they need to be acknowledged in decision-making. The starting point of this study is that natural resources need to be used sustainably and that different options for utilizing natural resources need to be compared from the sustainability perspective, without giving higher priority to any sustainability dimension compared to others beforehand. In this study four production chains based on energy use of forest biomass were examined: (1) local district heating based on forest chips, (2) combined heat and power with wood and peat, (3) wood pellet production from by-products of the wood product industry, and (4) biodiesel production based on wood and peat. The indicators for different sustainability dimensions in the studied production chains were determined through expert interviews and the indicator values were determined through literature review and interviews. The mathematical examination of sustainability was based on multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) so that a computational tool suitable for the calculations was developed. In total, 20 - 40 indicators were defined for each sustainability dimension; out of these, five to

  20. Alkali-Activated Natural Pozzolan/Slag Binder for Sustainable Concrete

    Science.gov (United States)

    Najimi, Meysam

    This study aimed to fully replace Portland cement (PC) with environmentally friendly binders capable of improving longevity of concrete. The new binders consisted of different proportions of natural Pozzolan and slag which were alkaline-activated with various combinations of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate. A step-by-step research program was designed to (1) develop alkali-activated natural Pozzolan/slag pastes with adequate fresh and strength properties, (2) produce alkali-activated natural Pozzolan/slag mortars to assess the effects of dominant variables on their plastic and hardened properties, and (3) finally produce and assess fresh, mechanical, dimensional, transport and durability properties of alkali-activated natural Pozzolan/slag concretes. The major variables included in this study were binder combination (natural Pozzolan/slag combinations of 70/30, 50/50 and 30/70), activator combination (sodium silicate/sodium hydroxide combinations of 20/80, 25/75 and 30/70), and sodium hydroxide concentration (1, 1.75 and 2.5M). The experimental program assessed performance of alkali-activated natural Pozzolan/slag mixtures including fresh properties (flow and setting times), unit weights (fresh, demolded and oven-dry), mechanical properties (compressive and tensile strengths, and modulus of elasticity), transport properties (absorption, rapid chloride penetration, and rapid chloride migration), durability (frost resistance, chloride induced corrosion, and resistance to sulfuric acid attack), and dimensional stability (drying shrinkage). This study also compared the performance of alkali-activated natural Pozzolan/slag concretes with that of an equivalent reference Portland cement concrete having a similar flow and strength characteristics. The results of this study revealed that it was doable to find optimum binder proportions, activator combinations and sodium hydroxide concentrations to achieve adequate plastic and hardened properties. Nearly for all studied

  1. A preliminary declaration of sustainability ethics: making peace with the ultimate bioexecutioner

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Cairns Jr.

    2003-05-01

    Full Text Available Sustainability is a utopian vision that requires living harmoniously with nature, which will exact harsh penalties on species that exceed Earth's carrying capacity and violate nature's laws. To make this vision a reality, humankind needs a global ethical consensus on sustainable use of the planet - sustainability ethics. Sustainability ethics has the goal of developing a sustainable, mutualistic relationship between humankind and the interdependent web of life that serves as Earth's ecological life support system. The quest for sustainable use of the planet is a value judgment that has more than one component. Arguably, the most important is increased attention to and compassion for posterity's quality of life, in short, leaving a habitable planet for future generations. This requires leaving natural capital and the ecosystem serves it provides undiminished at the least and increased at best. Although material possessions can be left to direct descendants, protecting the planet's ecological life support system must not only be for all of humankind's descendants but those of the 30+ million other species with which we share the planet. This is difficult because the recipients are distance (as individuals both temporally and spatially. Therefore, this quest will not be realised until an agreement emerges on the values and attitudes necessary to make sustainbility a reality. Science can then develop the standards and criteria necessary to reach this goal. In view of present unsustainable practices, a basis ethical consensus is necessary to develop sustainable practices.

  2. Nature by Default in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elliott, Sue; Young, Tracy

    2016-01-01

    This essay critiques the relevance of historical antecedents about children's play in nature and how these historical and political mechanisms create cultural rovoked by Taylor's (2013) exploration of the pervasive influence of romanticised images of innocent children in nature and our own experiences of never-ending "nice" stories about…

  3. Closer to Nature?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Borkfelt, Sune; Kondrup, Sara; Röcklinsberg, Helena

    2015-01-01

    discourses in order to sell one image of animal welfare in intensive animal production while the actual production at the same time presupposes a quite different paradigm of animal welfare. Specifically, product advertising utilizes representations tied to concepts of naturalness in depictions of both animal...... lives and product processes as “natural”. Product marketing suggests a coherence between nature, production process (farm, animal), and end product, thereby creating associations that the lives of production animals are lived in nature and that their products bring a wholesome and sustainable...

  4. Broader perspective on ecosystem sustainability: consequences for decision making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sidle, Roy C; Benson, William H; Carriger, John F; Kamai, Toshitaka

    2013-06-04

    Although the concept of ecosystem sustainability has a long-term focus, it is often viewed from a static system perspective. Because most ecosystems are dynamic, we explore sustainability assessments from three additional perspectives: resilient systems; systems where tipping points occur; and systems subject to episodic resetting. Whereas foundations of ecosystem resilience originated in ecology, recent discussions have focused on geophysical attributes, and it is recognized that dynamic system components may not return to their former state following perturbations. Tipping points emerge when chronic changes (typically anthropogenic, but sometimes natural) push ecosystems to thresholds that cause collapse of process and function and may become permanent. Ecosystem resetting occurs when episodic natural disasters breach thresholds with little or no warning, resulting in long-term changes to environmental attributes or ecosystem function. An example of sustainability assessment of ecosystem goods and services along the Gulf Coast (USA) demonstrates the need to include both the resilient and dynamic nature of biogeomorphic components. Mountain road development in northwest Yunnan, China, makes rivers and related habitat vulnerable to tipping points. Ecosystems reset by natural disasters are also presented, emphasizing the need to understand the magnitude frequency and interrelationships among major disturbances, as shown by (i) the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting tsunami, including how unsustainable urban development exacerbates geodisaster propagation, and (ii) repeated major earthquakes and associated geomorphic and vegetation disturbances in Papua New Guinea. Although all of these ecosystem perturbations and shifts are individually recognized, they are not embraced in contemporary sustainable decision making.

  5. The Matter of Geography in Education for Sustainable Development

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grindsted, Thomas Skou

    2015-01-01

    Geographical imaginations are absolutely vital to make sense of sustainability challenges. Yet, a number of studies reveal that geography education has been slow in integrating issues of sustainability into curricula. Geography is particularly interesting in the context of ESD, due to its tradition...... to addressing issues of sustainability. Then, it is examined how geographers articulate their role and function as to addressing issues of sustainability. It is concluded that, though geographers generally are reluctant with using the concept of sustainability, and find it better serves as an implicit notion...... approaches to be able to understand the dynamics, complexity and interactions in various scales. Third, geographers find their discipline provides an integrative knowledge platform between the natural and social sciences....

  6. Advancing sustainability science in South Africa

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Burns, MER

    2006-09-01

    Full Text Available sources of knowledge. A response to this situation has seen the emergence of 'sustainability science’, which aims to overcome divisions between knowledge sources of various forms, including the social and natural sciences and alternative epistemologies...

  7. Sustainability in School Building Design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. Ece ŞAHİN

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Sustainable construction is important for the continuation of life in a healthy world for futuregenerations; many issues affecting the quality of life such as effective use of resources, take advantage ofrenewable energy, the choice of recyclable materials that do not harm the environment and waterconservation are considered in the context of sustainable design. Implementations carried out in thisframework are regarded as valuable due to providing the consciousness of sustainability to the society.Creating the awareness of sustainability is given a great importance by educators; thus, “education forsustainability” are included from the preschool program so that children can learn the gainings of suchperspective in their early ages. In support of this concept, it is believed that education structures should bea laboratory where children can practice theoretical knowledge learned at school. In that respect, studiesneed to be considered in the context of sustainable construction are studied in this research. In the study,after a description of the importance of sustainable design as a learning mean, significant subjects such asusing natural light, heating, cooling and air-conditioning methods, wind energy, water protection andmaterial selection are analyzed in terms of designing sustainable schools. It is criticized worldwide thatstructures ground on sustainable design principles are relatively few in numbers. Despite, there is anincreasing interest to the subject in Turkey later years; a lot more steps are required in terms ofimplementation and research of the issue. Thus, the purpose of the study is to provide a supplementaryreference for school designs.

  8. Just sustainability? Sustainability and social justice in professional codes of ethics for engineers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brauer, Cletus S

    2013-09-01

    Should environmental, social, and economic sustainability be of primary concern to engineers? Should social justice be among these concerns? Although the deterioration of our natural environment and the increase in social injustices are among today's most pressing and important issues, engineering codes of ethics and their paramountcy clause, which contains those values most important to engineering and to what it means to be an engineer, do not yet put either concept on a par with the safety, health, and welfare of the public. This paper addresses a recent proposal by Michelfelder and Jones (2011) to include sustainability in the paramountcy clause as a way of rectifying the current disregard for social justice issues in the engineering codes. That proposal builds on a certain notion of sustainability that includes social justice as one of its dimensions and claims that social justice is a necessary condition for sustainability, not vice versa. The relationship between these concepts is discussed, and the original proposal is rejected. Drawing on insights developed throughout the paper, some suggestions are made as to how one should address the different requirements that theory and practice demand of the value taxonomy of professional codes of ethics.

  9. Contesting 'Environment' Through the Lens of Sustainability: Examining Implications for Environmental Education (EE and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Helen Kopnina

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available This article reflects on implications of presenting nature as a social construction, and of commodification of nature. The social construction of nature tends to limit significance of nature to human perception of it. Commodification presents nature in strict instrumental terms as 'natural resources', 'natural capital' or 'ecosystem services'. Both construction and commodification exhibit anthropocentric bias in denying intrinsic value of non-human species. This article will highlight the im-portance of a deep ecology perspective, by elaborating upon the ethical context in which construction and commodification of nature occur. Finally, this article will discuss the implications of this ethical context in relation to environmental education (EE and education for sustainable development (ESD.

  10. Contribution of Nuclear Science in Agriculture Sustainability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soliman, S.M.; Galal, Y.G.M.

    2017-01-01

    Sustainable agricultural systems employ natural processes to achieve acceptable levels of productivity and food quality while minimizing adverse environmental impacts. Sustainable agriculture must, by definition, be ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially responsible. Sustainable agriculture must nurture healthy co systems and support the sustainable management of land, water and natural resources, while ensuring world food security. To be sustainable, agriculture must meet the needs of present and future generations for its products and services, while ensuring profitability, environmental health and social and economic equity. The global transition to sustainable food and agriculture will require major improvements in the efficiency of resource use, in environmental protection and in systems resilience. In Mediterrane an environments, crops are grown mainly in the semiarid and sub-humid are as. In arid and semiarid are as dry land farming, techniques are of renewed interest in the view of sustain ability. They are aimed to increase water accumulation in the soil, reduce runoff and soil evaporation losses, choose species and varieties able to make better use of rainwater, and rationalize fertilization plans, sowing dates, and weed and pest control. Fertilization plans should be based on well-defined principles of plant nutrition, soil chemistry, and chemistry of the fertilizer elements. Starting from the calculation of nutrient crop uptake (based on the actually obtainable yield), dose calculation must be corrected by considering the relation ship between the availability of the trace elements in soil and the main physical and chemical parameters of the soil (ph, organic matter content, mineralization rate, C/N, ratio of solubilization of phosphorus, active lime content, presence of antagonist ions, etc.). In the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority, Soil and Water Research Department, nuclear techniques including radio and stable isotopes in addition to

  11. Enhancing agricultural productivity and rural incomes through sustainable use of natural resources in the semi arid tropics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wani, Suhas P; Dixin, Yin; Li, Zhong; Dar, William D; Chander, Girish

    2012-03-30

    A participatory watershed management approach is one of the tested, sustainable and eco-friendly options to upgrade rain-fed agriculture to meet growing food demand along with additional multiple benefits in terms of improving livelihoods, addressing equity issues and biodiversity concerns. Watershed interventions at study sites in Thailand (Tad Fa and Wang Chai) and India (Kothapally) effectively reduced runoff and the associated soil loss. Such interventions at Xiaoxincun (China) and Wang Chai improved groundwater recharging and availability. Enhanced productive transpiration increased rainwater use efficiency for crop production by 13-29% at Xiaoxincun; 13-160% at Lucheba (China), 32-37% at Tad Fa and 23-46% at Wang Chai and by two to five times at Kothapally. Watershed interventions increased significantly the additional net returns from crop production as compared with the pre-watershed intervention period. Increased water availability opened up options for crop diversification with high-value crops, including increased forage production and boosted livestock-based livelihoods. In dryland tropics, integrated watershed management approach enabled farmers to diversify the systems along with increasing agricultural productivity through increased water availability, while conserving the natural resource base. Household incomes increased substantially, leading to improved living and building the resilience of the community and natural resources. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry.

  12. Education for Sustainable Living: An International Perspective on Environmental Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fien, John

    1993-01-01

    Analyzes the nature of sustainable development and the role that environmental education can play in a transformation toward a sustainable society. Discusses three rules for teaching environmental education: a child-centered education, objectivity on matters of values, and creation of environmentally responsible behavior. Provides a checklist of…

  13. Scenarios for the hierarchical evaluation of the global sustainability of electric generator plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roldan A, M.C.; Martinez F, M.

    2007-01-01

    The AHP multi criteria method was applied (Analytic Hierarchy Process-Analytic process of Hierarchization) to evaluate the sustainability in the whole life cycle of the electricity generation technologies (hydroelectric, carboelectric, thermoelectric natural fuel oil, natural gas thermoelectric, geothermal, nucleo electric, wind electric, photo thermic and photovoltaic) with the purpose of offering an useful method in the taking of decisions to impel the sustainable development. Eight scenarios are analyzed. The results in most of the scenarios reflect the benefit of the renewable energy: the hydroelectric energy, photo thermic and wind driven its are those more sustainable. To reach the sustainable development in Mexico, the energy politicians should be more near to the use of the renewable energy. (Author)

  14. Cork Design : A Design Action Intervention Approach Towards Sustainable Product Innovation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mestre, A.C.C.M.

    2014-01-01

    The study Cork Design: A Design Action Intervention Approach Towards Sustainable Product Innovation comprises the systematic implementation of sustainable product innovation within the Portuguese cork sector, through action research. Cork is a natural, recyclable, non-toxic, and renewable resource,

  15. SWOT ANALYSIS AND STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN BANGLADESH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sanaul Haque Mondal

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Bangladesh is a small country with enormous natural beauty and cultural attractions. These gorgeous natural and cultural traits make this country as one of the important tourist destinations in the world but, this potentiality has been overlooked. The tourism industry is facing several challenges, and development efforts of this industry are not sustainable. This paper maps out a way to sustainable growth of the tourism industry in Bangladesh using the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats model and a derived matrix out of it. The data used for this study were derived from multiple sources, including literature review and interviews with professionals. To analyze strategic factors of the tourism industry in the country, internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats were determined to be followed by development of strategic planning based on the SWOT matrix. Results showed that existing tourism activities in Bangladesh are unsustainable. To develop a sustainable tourism industry to attract tourists, this study suggests different WT (weaknesses- threats strategies such as ensuring safety and security of tourists, effective planning for sustainable economic benefits, strict implementation of environmental regulations for ecological sustainability, alerting people about the importance of sustainable tourism development, and infrastructure development. Perhaps the findings of this study would be important in the effort to develop and promote a sustainable tourism industry in beautiful Bangladesh.

  16. Identification as Incentive to Care: Pre-Service Teachers' Orientation towards Inclusion in Nature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gedžune, Inga

    2015-01-01

    This study proposes identification with nature as a pedagogical technique in teacher education for sustainability to facilitate commitment to care about nonhuman nature, such care being an important underpinning of an inclusive and hence sustainable human-nature relationship. 29 pre-service teachers participated in a series of learning activities…

  17. Conservation and Sustainable Development: Linking Practice and ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    2012-01-01

    Jan 1, 2012 ... Book cover Conservation and Sustainable Development: Linking ... to have an influence on conservation and natural resource management. ... Call for new OWSD Fellowships for Early Career Women Scientists now open.

  18. Views on Biotic Nature and the Idea of Sustainable Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Łepko, Zbigniew

    2017-12-01

    The search for balance between humankind's civilisational aspirations and the durable protection of nature is conditioned by contemporaneous views of biotic nature. Of particular importance in this regard are physiocentric and physiological views that may be set against one another. The first of these was presented by Hans Jonas, the second by Lothar Schäfer. This paper does not confine itself to setting one view against the other, but rather sets minimum conditions for cooperation between their promoters in the interests of balance between the aspirations of the present generation and those of future generations. Both views of nature are in their own way conducive to a break with the illusion present in some areas of the modern natural sciences - that nature is a boundless area of are inexhaustible resources.

  19. On the roles of science and culture in sustainable development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eriksson, K.E.

    1999-01-01

    Sustainable development not only involves relations between the global society ant its resource base, the ecosphere, but also relations within the global society itself. It may useful to think of sustainable development as a process with two phases. The first is transitional and involves a transition to a sustainable situation in several essential respects: population; use of natural systems, in particular atmosphere, water, productive land; supply and use of water, food, energy; international order; democracy and human development. The second phase then involves continued development within the restrictions set by the sustainable requirements

  20. Design for Sustainability and Project Management Literature – A Review

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ali, Faheem; Boks, Casper; Bey, Niki

    2016-01-01

    management literature has hardly been considered in design for sustainability research, this article attempts to review the points of intersection between these two fields, and explores the potential that knowledge from project management literature has in improving efficiency and effectiveness...... of development and implementation of design for sustainability tools.......The growing pressure on natural resources and increasing global trade have made sustainability issues a prime area of concern for all businesses alike. The increased focus on sustainability has impacted the way projects are conceived, planned, executed and evaluated in industries. Since project...

  1. Sustainable nanomaterials using waste agricultural residues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sustainable synthetic processes developed during the past two decades involving the use of alternate energy inputs and greener reaction media are summarized. Learning from nature, one can produce a wide variety of nanoparticles using completely safe and benign materials such as ...

  2. The concept of sustainable development as a methodological base to form strategy for enterprises of oil complex

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Smirnov

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The article substantiates the need for the enterprises of the oil complex as a methodological basis of their strategy concept of sustainable development, according to which natural resources are treated as natural capital, similar in quality funds. The author of the article analyzed the research of Russian and foreign scientists on the theory of sustainable development from different perspectives, as well as the Concept of the Russian Federation transition to sustainable development, the main criteria for sustainability, particularly management of industrial enterprises in the field of nature and the environment. It was found that the implementation of sustainable development ideas "oil for future generations" is not only a moral and environmental dimension, and financial performance. If companies invest in the exploration work sufficient to sustain growth of proved reserves of raw materials, it will inevitably raise the level of its capitalization.

  3. Some Thoughts on Sustainability, Insurability and Insurance

    OpenAIRE

    Walter R Stahel

    1997-01-01

    There are clear indications that the present “old” industrial economy needs a serious adjustment to become compatible with the aims of a sustainable society. The main issues involved are the time factor, resource productivity and socio-cultural ecology.-the time factor: sustainability is a long-term societal vision concerned with the stewardship of natural resources and assets in order to safeguard the opportunities and choices of future generations. The industrial economy is often limited to...

  4. Nuclear energy in a sustainable development perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bertel, E.; Wilmer, P.

    2001-01-01

    The characteristics of nuclear energy are reviewed and assessed from a sustainable development perspective highlighting key economic, environmental and social issues, challenges and opportunities relevant for energy policy making.. The analysis covers the potential role of nuclear energy in increasing the human and man-made capital assets of the world while preserving its natural and environmental resource assets as well as issues to be addressed in order to enhance the contribution of nuclear energy to sustainable development goals. (author)

  5. How Earth Educators Can Help Students Develop a Holistic Understanding of Sustainability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Curren, R. R.; Metzger, E. P.

    2017-12-01

    With their expert understanding of planetary systems, Earth educators play a pivotal role in helping students understand the scientific dimensions of solution-resistant ("wicked") challenges to sustainability that arise from complex interactions between intertwined and co-evolving natural and human systems. However, teaching the science of sustainability in isolation from consideration of human values and social dynamics leaves students with a fragmented understanding and obscures the underlying drivers of unsustainability. Geoscience instructors who wish to address sustainability in their courses may feel ill-equipped to engage students in investigation of the fundamental nature of sustainability and its social and ethical facets. This presentation will blend disciplinary perspectives from Earth system science, philosophy, psychology, and anthropology to: 1) outline a way to conceptualize sustainability that synthesizes scientific, social, and ethical perspectives and 2) provide an overview of resources and teaching strategies designed to help students connect science content to the socio-political dimensions of sustainability through activities and assignments that promote active learning, systems thinking, reflection, and collaborative problem-solving.

  6. INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF EPIDEMIOLOGICAL INJURIES TO ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ELITE SOUTlI AFRICAN CRICKET. PLAYERS. R A Stretch. Objectives. The study investigated the incidence and nature of injuries sustained by elite cricketers during a season and the possible risk factors associated with these injuries. Methods. Fourteen physiotherapists and three doctors recorded 163 injuries sustained ...

  7. Is sustainability achievable? Exploring the limits of sustainability with model systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shastri, Yogendra; Diwekar, Urmila; Cabezas, Heriberto; Williamson, James

    2008-09-01

    Successful implementation of sustainability ideas in ecosystem management requires a basic understanding of the often nonlinear and nonintuitive relationships among different dimensions of sustainability, particularly the system-wide implications of human actions. This basic understanding further includes a sense of the time scale of possible future events and the limits of what is and is not likely to be possible. With this understanding, systematic approaches can then be used to develop policy guidelines for the system. This article presents an illustration of these ideas by analyzing an integrated ecological-economic-social model, which comprises various ecological (natural) and domesticated compartments representing species along with a macroeconomic price setting model. The stable and qualitatively realistic model is used to analyze different relevant scenarios. Apart from highlighting complex relationships within the system, it identifies potentially unsustainable future developments such as increased human per capita consumption rates. Dynamic optimization is then used to develop time-dependent policy guidelines for the unsustainable scenarios using objective functions that aim to minimize fluctuations in the system's Fisher information. The results can help to identify effective policy parameters and highlight the tradeoff between natural and domesticated compartments while managing such integrated systems. The results should also qualitatively guide further investigations in the area of system level studies and policy development.

  8. Emozioni, giudizi e valori

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marianna Bergamaschi Ganapini

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper represents only the initial stage of my research and its main goal is to go over some aspects of the current debate on emotions. After laying out the cognitivist position, I will review some objections that have been moved to it. After that I will focus on the work on emotions recently done by de Sousa, Mulligan and Wollheim. In the literature, views on emotions have played a role in the debate on the nature of values. So at the end of the paper I will very briefly tackle the issue of values in relation to the so-called "response-dependence" approach.

  9. Measurement of sustainability index among paper manufacturing plants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharathkumar Reddy, V.; Jayakrishna, K.; Lal, Babu

    2017-11-01

    The paper manufacturing companies are facing challenges to implement sustainable manufacturing into their products and processes. Paper manufacturing has remarked as an intensive consumer of natural raw materials, energy and a major source of multiple pollutants. Thus, evaluating the sustainable manufacturing in these companies has become a necessity. This paper proposes a set of Performance Indicators (PIs) for evaluating the sustainable manufacturing appropriate to the paper manufacturing companies based on the triple bottom line of sustainability. The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), a multi-criteria decision analysis method is applied to prioritize the performance indicators by summarizing the opinions of stakeholders. It is hoped that the proposed PIs enables and assists the paper manufacturing companies to achieve the higher performance in sustainable manufacturing and so as to increase their competitiveness.

  10. Placing ecosystem sustainability within the context of dynamic earth systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sidle, R. C.

    2013-12-01

    Because the concept of ecosystem sustainability and the practice of sustainable land management both have long-term foci, it is necessary to view these from the perspective of dynamic rather than static systems. In addition to the typical static system approach for assessing ecosystem sustainability, three additional perspectives are presented. These are resilient systems, systems where tipping points occur, and systems subject to episodic geophysical resetting. Ecosystem resilience accommodates both natural and anthropogenic stressors and should be considered to properly frame many ecosystem assessments. A more complex problem emerges when stressors push systems to tipping points, causing a regime shift. Both chronic anthropogenic activities (e.g., over-grazing, forest conversion, poor irrigation practices) and natural changes (e.g., climate anomalies, geochemical weathering, tectonic uplift, vegetative succession) can exhaust ecosystem resilience leading to a rapid change in state. Anthropogenic perturbations can also lower the initiation threshold and increase the magnitude and frequency of certain natural disasters, increasing the likelihood of ecosystem change. Furthermore, when major episodic geophysical events (e.g., large earthquakes, tsunami, and floods; widespread volcanic activity and landslides) exceed thresholds of ecosystem resilience they may reset the attributes of entire systems or landscapes. Large disasters can initiate a cascade of linked events, as in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, where tsunami, fires, landslides, artificial fillslope collapses, radioactive releases, and associated health effects occurred. Understanding the potential for natural change (both chronic and episodic) in ecosystems is essential not only to the environmental aspect of sustainability but also to economic and social aspects. Examples are presented for: (1) ecosystems vulnerable to tipping points (Yunnan, China) and (2) ecosystems reset by earthquakes and

  11. Framework for measuring sustainable development in catchment systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walmsley, Jay J

    2002-02-01

    Integrated catchment management represents an approach to managing the resources of a catchment by integrating environmental, economic, and social issues. It is aimed at deriving sustainable benefits for future generations, while protecting natural resources, particularly water, and minimizing possible adverse social, economic, and environmental consequences. Indicators of sustainable development, which summarize information for use in decision-making, are invaluable when trying to assess the diverse, interacting components of catchment processes and resource management actions. The Driving-Forces--Pressure--State--Impact--Response (DPSIR) indicator framework is useful for identifying and developing indicators of sustainable development for catchment management. Driving forces have been identified as the natural conditions occurring in a catchment and the level of development and economic activity. Pressures include the natural and anthropogenic supply of water, water demand, and water pollution. State indicators can be split into those of quantity and those of quality. Impacts include those that affect the ecosystems directly and those that impact the use value of the resource. It core indicators are identified within each of the categories given in the framework, most major catchment-based management issues can be evaluated. This framework is applied to identify key issues in catchment management in South Africa, and develop a set of indicators for evaluating catchments throughout the country.

  12. Gaz de France 2006 sustainable development report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2006-01-01

    A major European energy utility, the Gaz de France Group produces, purchases, transports, distributes and sells natural gas, electricity and related services for its residential, corporate and local government customers. this report presents the actions implemented by the group to incorporate sustainable development into its strategy. From the point of view of risks and opportunities, the group analyzes what it takes to ensure development that respects people and the environment, and it implements them in all its business lines and management systems. Content: Gaz de France, portrait of a major energy utility, highlights of 2006, challenges and strategy (defining strategy and sustainable development policy, specific risks and opportunities, activities of the Gaz de France group: challenges, impact for stakeholders, transparency and independence in governing), ranking and implementing (defining sustainable development policy: reviewing priorities, meeting all the challenges, publicizing and defending positions, increasing awareness, overseeing and monitoring results), results of the 2004-2006 sustainable development action plan, dialogue and action with stakeholders, performance assessment, performance in response to challenges: energy challenges (guaranteeing regular supplies, controlling atmospheric emissions, promoting energy conservation, developing renewable energy), industrial challenges (ensuring health and safety, limiting the overall environmental impact of group activities), social responsibility challenges (advocating corporate social responsibility, promoting human rights and fighting corruption, encouraging commitment to solidarity, promoting regional development through local initiatives, reconciling acquisitions, procurement and sustainable development, ensuring transparency in natural gas rates, providing shareholders with quality information, promoting diversity, a source of enrichment, making working conditions a performance factor), indicators and

  13. Sustainable construction - the standard for all public building?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Handyside, R. [Richard Handyside Construction Resources (United Kingdom)

    2002-01-01

    This article argues for the need for foresight and planning to achieve sustainable development in the construction of public buildings. Reasons why sustainable development fails are highlighted, and the key factors that go to make a development sustainable are listed and involve the choice and layout of the site, site services, the fitting of spaces to the required purpose, the arrangement of rooms to achieve maximum use of natural light, heat and air, and the choice of construction materials and finishes. The balancing of short and long-term costs, and the use of life-cycle costs in every project are discussed.

  14. ABSOLUTE AND COMPARATIVE SUSTAINABILITY OF FARMING ENTERPRISES IN BULGARIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Bachev

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Evaluating absolute and comparative sustainability of farming enterprises is among the most topical issues for researchers, farmers, investors, administrators, politicians, interests groups and public at large. Nevertheless, in Bulgaria and most East European countries there are no comprehensive assessments on sustainability level of Bulgarian farms of different juridical type. This article applies a holistic framework and assesses absolute and comparative sustainability major farming structures in Bulgaria - unregistered farms of Natural Persons, Sole Traders, Cooperatives, and Companies. First, method of the study is outlined, and overall characteristics of surveyed farming enterprises presented. After that an assessment is made of integral, governance, economic, social, environmental sustainability of farming structures of different juridical type. Next, structure of farming enterprises with different sustainability levels is analyzed. Finally, conclusion from the study and directions for further research and amelioration of sustainability assessments suggested.

  15. Aloe vera in active and passive regions of electronic devices towards a sustainable development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Zhe Xi; Sreenivasan, Sasidharan; Wong, Yew Hoong; Cheong, Kuan Yew

    2017-07-01

    The increasing awareness towards sustainable development of electronics has driven the search for natural bio-organic materials in place of conventional electronic materials. The concept of using natural bio-organic materials in electronics provides not only an effective solution to address global electronic waste crisis, but also a compelling template for sustainable electronics manufacturing. This paper attempts to provide an overview of using Aloe vera gel as a natural bio-organic material for various electronic applications. Important concepts such as responses of living Aloe vera plant towards electrical stimuli and demonstrations of Aloe vera films as passive and active regions of electronic devices are highlighted in chronological order. The biodegradability and biocompatibility of Aloe vera can bring the world a step closer towards the ultimate goal of sustainable development of electronic devices from "all-natural" materials.

  16. A Tale of Two (or More Sustainabilities: A Q Methodology Study of University Professors’ Perspectives on Sustainable Universities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul Sylvestre

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available If change for sustainability in higher education is to be effective, change efforts must be sensitive to the institutional culture in which they will be applied. Therefore, gaining insight into how institutional stakeholders engage with the concept of sustainable universities is an important first step in understanding how to frame and communicate change. This study employed Q methodology to explore how a group of professors conceptualize sustainable universities. We developed a Q sample of 46 statements comprising common conceptions of sustainable universities and had 26 professors from Dalhousie University rank-order them over a quasi-normal distribution. Our analysis uncovered four statistically significant viewpoints amongst the participants: ranging from technocentric optimists who stress the importance of imbuing students with skills and values to more liberal arts minded faculty suspicious of the potential of sustainability to instrumentalize the university. An examination of how these viewpoints interact on a subjective level revealed a rotating series of alignments and antagonisms in relation to themes traditionally associated with sustainable universities and broader themes associated with the identity of the university in contemporary society. Finally, we conclude by discussing the potential implications that the nature of these alignments and antagonisms may hold for developing a culturally sensitive vision of a sustainable university.

  17. Sustainable Development Policy for the Environomy: Population, Land-use, and Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ravago, M.; Roumasset, J.

    2009-12-01

    Despite its inertia and avowed purpose of being practical and feasible, sustainability science has yet to embrace the policy sciences. The existing sustainability science agenda emphasizes the importance of taking a systems approach and stresses capturing many interactions between natural and human systems. In order to incorporate policy analysis, we first trace the history of thought of sustainable development, including its definition and operationalization. After rejecting the popular Venn diagram approach to sustainable development (environment, economy, society) as non-operational and unfettered preservationism as counterproductive, two promising approaches to sustainable growth are contrasted. Negative sustainability is an injunction not to deplete the total value of natural and produced capital, leaving all other questions of economic and environmental management unanswered. To fill the void, we offer positive sustainability, which maximizes intertemporal welfare while incorporating interlinkages within the total environomy. This provides an operational framework for sustainable growth, including the efficiency values of produced and natural capital. In addition, sustainable development must include the optimal patterns of production, consumption, and trade. We illustrate particular patterns of unsustainable development by drawing on lessons from cultivation patterns in the Philippines. In the province of Bukidnon, Philippines the traditional drivers of agricultural expansion were logging and forest fires. In recent decades, intense vegetable cultivation coupled with access to roads and lack of well-defined property rights drive intensification and environmental degradation. Population in the province has risen and grew more than the national average. The high population growth, combined with distorted economic policies, has resulted in extreme population pressure in the province, which decreased the fallow period and caused erosion, falling yields, and

  18. Achieving Sustainability: Insights from Biogas Ecosystems in India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gita Surie

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper focuses on how the use of renewable energy technologies such as biogas can help to achieve environmental and socio-economic sustainability. It combines research on sustainable consumption and production, natural and industrial ecosystems and renewable energy adoption to develop a framework for an industrial ecosystem for biogas for bottom-of-the-pyramid and rural populations. The framework suggests that three dimensions of industrial ecosystems and a meta-dimension can be embedded in the design of a new industrial ecosystem for biogas to facilitate environmental and socio-economic sustainability. Case studies of an organization engaged in using biogas to create a sustainable bioenergy ecosystem for rural populations and two organizations producing biogas in urban India provide support for the framework.

  19. Important features of Sustainable Aggregate Resource Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solar, Slavko V.; Shields, Deborah J.; Langer, William H.

    2004-01-01

    Every society, whether developed, developing or in a phase of renewal following governmental change, requires stable, adequate and secure supplies of natural resources. In the latter case, there could be significant need for construction materials for rebuilding infrastructure, industrial capacity, and housing. It is essential that these large-volume materials be provided in a rational manner that maximizes their societal contribution and minimizes environmental impacts. We describe an approach to resource management based on the principles of sustainable developed. Sustainable Aggregate Resource Management offers a way of addressing the conflicting needs and interests of environmental, economic, and social systems. Sustainability is an ethics based concept that utilizes science and democratic processes to reach acceptable agreements and tradeoffs among interests, while acknowledging the fundamental importance of the environment and social goods. We discuss the features of sustainable aggregate resource management.

  20. Engineering biological systems toward a sustainable bioeconomy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lopes, Mateus Schreiner Garcez

    2015-06-01

    The nature of our major global risks calls for sustainable innovations to decouple economic growth from greenhouse gases emission. The development of sustainable technologies has been negatively impacted by several factors including sugar production costs, production scale, economic crises, hydraulic fracking development and the market inability to capture externality costs. However, advances in engineering of biological systems allow bridging the gap between exponential growth of knowledge about biology and the creation of sustainable value chains for a broad range of economic sectors. Additionally, industrial symbiosis of different biobased technologies can increase competitiveness and sustainability, leading to the development of eco-industrial parks. Reliable policies for carbon pricing and revenue reinvestments in disruptive technologies and in the deployment of eco-industrial parks could boost the welfare while addressing our major global risks toward the transition from a fossil to a biobased economy.

  1. Important Features of Sustainable Aggregate Resource Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Slavko V. Šolar

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available Every society, whether developed, developing or in a phase of renewal following governmental change, requires stable, adequate and secure supplies of natural resources. In the latter case, there could be significant need for construction materials for rebuilding infrastructure, industrial capacity, and housing. It is essential that these large-volume materials be provided in a rational manner that maximizes their societal contribution and minimizes environmental impacts. We describe an approach to resource management based on the principles of sustainable development. Sustainable Aggregate Resource Management offers a way of addressing the conflicting needs and interests of environmental, economic, and social systems. Sustainability is an ethics based concept that utilizes science and democratic processes to reach acceptable agreements and tradeoffs among interests, while acknowledging the fundamental importance of the environment and social goods. We discuss the features of sustainable aggregate resource management.

  2. Globalization, Sustainable Development and Universities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toakley, Arthur Raymond

    2004-01-01

    Globalization is a natural outcome of the sustained technological and economic growth, which originated with the Industrial Revolution in Britain during the 18th century. This path to continuing economic growth spread initially to continental Europe and North America, and brought with it the creation of large towns and substantial social change.…

  3. Sustainable development, challenges and priorities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soltani Arabshahi, S.

    2003-01-01

    This article primarily introduces a general overview of the concept of sustainable development along with its formation and expansion process. After defining the concept, followed by an analysis of certain principles on how s ustainable development management h as so far been implemented, some arguments against those principles are presented. The article emphasize on the fact that ever since the concept of sustainable development has emerged, highly industrialized countries perceived it as o nging development m erely in its materialistic sense, with little respect to preserving the nature. while developing countries are held responsible to cooperate, coordinate and act in with international directives on environment protection, industrialized countries, in addition to changing their production and consumption patterns, must be committed to provided financial resources and transfer the needed environmentally sound technologies the developing world. The author finally suggests an number of guidelines as to how sustainable development may be achieved Iran

  4. Biodiversity Change and Sustainable Development: New Perspectives

    OpenAIRE

    Tisdell, Clement A.

    2012-01-01

    Biodiversity is usually regarded as an asset or resource, the stock of which is partly natural and partly determined by humans. Humans both subtract from and add to this stock and consequently, the change in the stock is heterogeneous. This heterogeneity is not taken account of by some authors who focus only on the loss aspect. Frequently, the conservation of this stock is seen as important for the achievement of sustainable development; sustainable development being defined (but not always a...

  5. E-waste: A Challenge for Sustainable Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Md. Sahadat Hossain

    2015-01-01

    Conclusions. Sustainability is being prioritized for all development activities by integrating societal, economic, environmental, technological, cultural, and gender perspectives. Considering the adverse potential eco-toxicological impacts and diverse health effects of e-waste, an urgent global multilateral agreement is needed addressing its management (i.e., handling, storage, transportation, recycling, and final disposal, whether by land filling or incineration. Due to the global nature of the issue and the difficulty of establishing sustainable and environmentally sound processing of e-waste in low-income countries, multinational negotiation and collaboration is the only realistic solution. Furthermore, comprehensive global e-waste management and policies could help to off-set the hazards of e-waste and are the best approach for achieving sustainable development.

  6. The Carpathians. Integrating nature and society towards sustainability

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kozak, Jacek; Ostapowicz, Katarzyna [Jagiellonian Univ., Krakow (Poland). Inst. of Geography and Spatial Management; Bytnerowicz, Andrzej [Pacific Southwest Research Station, Riverside, CA (United States). USDA Forest Service; Wyzga, Bartlomiej (eds.) [Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow (Poland). Inst. of Nature Conservation

    2013-06-01

    Provides an interdisciplinary approach. Explores ways to generate value for the Carpathian mountain region. Gives a new insight into the Carpathian mountain region. The Carpathians are a distinct mountain chain in the core of Central and Eastern Europe holding valuable biological resources and a rich cultural heritage. The last twenty years have witnessed an increasing awareness of the Carpathians' value for European society and strengthened research cooperation in the region, especially after the enlargement of the European Union in 2004 and 2007. This book presents a wide range of problems related to sustainable development in the Carpathian region that were discussed during the 1{sup st} Forum Carpaticum held in 2010 in Krakow, Poland. The four sections of the book deal with various issues related to the abiotic environment, forests and biodiversity, human activities, and research methods allowing a better understanding of the past, present and future of the Carpathians.

  7. Developing a framework for sustainability governance in the European Union

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meadowcroft, J. [Carleton Univ., Ottawa (Canada). School of Public Policy and Adminstration; Farrell, K.N. [Belfast Univ., Northern Ireland (United Kingdom). Inst. of Governance, Public Policy and Social Research; Spangenberg, J. [Sustainable Europe Research Inst., Bad Oeynhausen (Germany)

    2005-07-01

    Sustainable development represents a major governance challenge of the 21st century. If societal development trajectories are to be realigned on to more sustainable pathways major changes will be required to existing processes and practices of governance. This essay considers the nature of these changes and discusses implications for social science research. (author)

  8. Multi-Sector Sustainability Browser (MSSB) User Manual: A ...

    Science.gov (United States)

    EPA’s Sustainable and Healthy Communities (SHC) Research Program is developing methodologies, resources, and tools to assist community members and local decision makers in implementing policy choices that facilitate sustainable approaches in managing their resources affecting the built environment, natural environment, and human health. In order to assist communities and decision makers in implementing sustainable practices, EPA is developing computer-based systems including models, databases, web tools, and web browsers to help communities decide upon approaches that support their desired outcomes. Communities need access to resources that will allow them to achieve their sustainability objectives through intelligent decisions in four key sustainability areas: • Land Use • Buildings and Infrastructure • Transportation • Materials Management (i.e., Municipal Solid Waste [MSW] processing and disposal) The Multi-Sector Sustainability Browser (MSSB) is designed to support sustainable decision-making for communities, local and regional planners, and policy and decision makers. Document is an EPA Technical Report, which is the user manual for the Multi-Sector Sustainability Browser (MSSB) tool. The purpose of the document is to provide basic guidance on use of the tool for users

  9. A case study for sustainable development action using financial gradients

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bose, Arnab; Ramji, Aditya; Singh, Jarnail; Dholakia, Dhairya

    2012-01-01

    Energy access is critical for sustainable development and therefore financing energy access is a necessity. The key is whether to focus on grants or public finance for sustainable development projects or move to a more diffused financing mechanism, involving investment grade financing sources like debt and equity. In other words, financing sustainable development action via grants is becoming a constraint. To address this constraint, it is important to consider the relationship between the nature and sources of financial flows. The concept of ‘financial gradients’ emerged while analysing the financial and business strategy developed for Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) campaign. This paper espouses the idea of ‘financial gradients’ which is a potential financial mechanism for sustainable development action. Financial gradients, can contribute in three different ways—first, as an approach to analyse financial flows in projects; second, as a tool to generate a single, long term and stable inflow of finance; third, as a financial mechanism to help in creating long term strategies to sustain projects. This paper will concentrate on financial gradients as a potential approach to analyse financial flows in a sustainable development programme. - Highlights: ► Financial stability is a key challenge for sustainable development programmes. ► Development action via public funds is limited, need for investment grade finance. ► Need to understand financial flows with relation to nature and sources of finance. ► Financial gradients is an innovative tool for ensuring health of programmes.

  10. Recent Developments in the Application of Fisher Information to Sustainable Environmental Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Assessing sustainability in human and natural systems is often hampered by complex dynamics, timescales, and inherent linkages among the observable properties. Although many indicators have been identified that help classify trends indicating movement toward and away from sustain...

  11. THE ROLE OF ENERGY IN ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Popescu Maria-Floriana

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The rapid population growth leads to greater daily demand for energy, causing nations to diversify their portfolios and seek new sources of energy, including renewable to provide more energy. In a universe with seriously exhausted natural resources, severe urbanization, climate change and conflicts that go beyond borders, the issue of overpopulation unquestionably causes worldwide debates and can generate a snowball effect for the global economy or human society. Population’s increase in the nearby future will have a central role in challenges such as: global warming, air and water contamination, increase in the level of poverty, food scarcity, deforestation, desertification, health problems and resource shortages. The transformation into a sustainable environmental model, situated in a post-carbon economy, will imply setting barriers to industrial progress (will have to be sustainable and environmental friendly and also to population growth (will have to follow a normal pace. But, the level on vulnerability and uncertainty in the evolution of energy has been threatened lately by major events that took place all around the world. Security of supply, new geopolitical perspectives and ecological and sustainability issues are yet again on the bleeding line. Therefore, the goal of this theoretical article is to give an overview of the current situation concerning the role of energy in ecological sustainability. It expresses routes in which humans and enterprises can act in order to contribute to ecologically sustainable development. The subject of how we live on a congested planet represents the most critical sustainability of all. We are witnessing our current risks and we can also envision our possible, and particularly desirable, future: a steady human population, living and protecting the nature and planet, having finite needs of goods, services, or energy, and maintaining a healthy Earth for us and the animals that also depend on it. This is

  12. Steady equilibrium of a cylindrically symmetric plasma sustained by fueling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tomita, Yukihiro; Momota, Hiromu

    1993-01-01

    By introducing a novel and natural method to obtain a steady equilibrium, it is shown that a pressure gradient produced by the particle injection or resultant diamagnetic current can sustain only an equilibrium of a diffused linear pinch. For an extremely elongated FRC where magnetic field vanishes at a certain point, a seed current is needed to sustain configuration in a steady state equilibrium. A directed flow of fusion produced protons forms a seed current and consequently it sustains a steady FRC equilibrium by fueling only once D- 3 He burning takes place. Effects of anomalous transports on the sustainment are discussed. (author)

  13. Vegetation, population and ecological track as sustainability indicators in Colombia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marquez Calle, German

    2000-01-01

    Biophysical sustainability, namely natural capabilities to sustain human development in Colombia, is explored through environmental indicators based on land cover and demographic variables. Remnant vegetation index (IVR in Spanish) uses cover as a measure of ecosystem functionality. Population pressure index (IPD) applies population density to environmental demand analysis. Footprint index (IHE) relates the inverse of density with sustainability. Environmental criticality index combines IVR and IPD to detect offer/demand unbalances. Results suggest Colombia is sustainable although many places in it could be in danger; this could be related with social and economical features of the country

  14. Working with human nature to achieve sustainability : exploring structural constraints and opportunities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kopnina, H.N.

    2017-01-01

    Sustainable production is often limited by structural factors such as industrial development, neoliberal democracy, growing population and globalization of consumer culture. Drawing on the work of some theorists linking unsustainability to universal psychological propensities, this article discusses

  15. Environmental Impact Assessment Of Tourism And Environment Sensitive Sustainable Tourism Model

    OpenAIRE

    Gündüz, Fuat

    1999-01-01

    The basis of sustainable development is formed by sustaining environmental resources and values without losing their characteristics. In addition to production processes, tourism activity is the phenomenon that spoils ecological balances. The factors that form tourism sector are natural resources and socio-cultural and historical accumulations. The sustainability of tourism sector and development depends on the protection of all types of environmental values. In order to protect environmental...

  16. MARKETING AND SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

    OpenAIRE

    Silvia Muhcină

    2007-01-01

    Among others, tourism marketing has the purpose to facilitate the process of conceiving and developing those specific tourism products, which better corresponding to different tourists categories' needs. These products are created going from utilization of some natural and human resources, considered as tourism attraction. In the sustainable development spirit, marketers must conceive harmonious tourism product policies; as to satisfy the actual tourists' needs and future tourists generation'...

  17. Carrying capacities for nature parks as engines for sustainable regional development

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brandt, Jesper; Holmes, Esbern

    as a departure for the comparison of the protectional conditions for the parks. Many other aspects of the nature and social carrying capacities however also constitute important conditions for the park management. Increasing emphasis on visitor experience is not only a challenge for the nature protection......Growth in the number of visitors is an upcoming problem in nature parks. Nature parks are at the same time facing increasing demand, falling public appropriations and receding focus on their conservation functions. To ensure a balancing of nature protection and economic utilization the concept...... of carrying capacity has received increasing attention among park-authorities all over the world. A comparative analysis of conditions and initiatives related to visitor/nature carrying capacities in 8 nature parks in the Baltic region has been carried out. All the parks are candidates for recognition...

  18. Language, Evolution and Mind

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Saint-Germier, Pierre Laurent G

    A collection of essays offered to Anne Reboul on the occasion of her 60th birthday. Contributions by Deirdre Wilson, Kevin Mulligan, Eros Corazza, Ira Noveck, Cedric Boeckx, Luigi Rizzi, Frederick Newmeyer (among others)...

  19. Effect of biosurfactant from two strains of Pseudomonas on ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    PRECIOUS

    2009-12-01

    Dec 1, 2009 ... African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. ... concentration 1, 2, 5 and 10%, suggesting a potential use in surfactant ... utilization of hydrocarbon by microbial community. ... processing industries (Kosaric et al., 1987; Mulligan and.

  20. Investing in Natural and Nature-Based Infrastructure: Building Better Along Our Coasts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ariana E. Sutton-Grier

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Much of the United States’ critical infrastructure is either aging or requires significant repair, leaving U.S. communities and the economy vulnerable. Outdated and dilapidated infrastructure places coastal communities, in particular, at risk from the increasingly frequent and intense coastal storm events and rising sea levels. Therefore, investments in coastal infrastructure are urgently needed to ensure community safety and prosperity; however, these investments should not jeopardize the ecosystems and natural resources that underlie economic wealth and human well-being. Over the past 50 years, efforts have been made to integrate built infrastructure with natural landscape features, often termed “green” infrastructure, in order to sustain and restore valuable ecosystem functions and services. For example, significant advances have been made in implementing green infrastructure approaches for stormwater management, wastewater treatment, and drinking water conservation and delivery. However, the implementation of natural and nature-based infrastructure (NNBI aimed at flood prevention and coastal erosion protection is lagging. There is an opportunity now, as the U.S. government reacts to the recent, unprecedented flooding and hurricane damage and considers greater infrastructure investments, to incorporate NNBI into coastal infrastructure projects. Doing so will increase resilience and provide critical services to local communities in a cost-effective manner and thereby help to sustain a growing economy.

  1. Digital Earth - A sustainable Earth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahavir

    2014-02-01

    All life, particularly human, cannot be sustainable, unless complimented with shelter, poverty reduction, provision of basic infrastructure and services, equal opportunities and social justice. Yet, in the context of cities, it is believed that they can accommodate more and more people, endlessly, regardless to their carrying capacity and increasing ecological footprint. The 'inclusion', for bringing more and more people in the purview of development is often limited to social and economic inclusion rather than spatial and ecological inclusion. Economic investment decisions are also not always supported with spatial planning decisions. Most planning for a sustainable Earth, be at a level of rural settlement, city, region, national or Global, fail on the capacity and capability fronts. In India, for example, out of some 8,000 towns and cities, Master Plans exist for only about 1,800. A chapter on sustainability or environment is neither statutorily compulsory nor a norm for these Master Plans. Geospatial technologies including Remote Sensing, GIS, Indian National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), Indian National Urban Information Systems (NUIS), Indian Environmental Information System (ENVIS), and Indian National GIS (NGIS), etc. have potential to map, analyse, visualize and take sustainable developmental decisions based on participatory social, economic and social inclusion. Sustainable Earth, at all scales, is a logical and natural outcome of a digitally mapped, conceived and planned Earth. Digital Earth, in fact, itself offers a platform to dovetail the ecological, social and economic considerations in transforming it into a sustainable Earth.

  2. Assessing the influence of sustainable trail design and maintenance on soil loss

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marion, Jeff; Wimpey, Jeremy

    2017-01-01

    Natural-surfaced trail systems are an important infrastructure component providing a means for accessing remote protected natural area destinations. The condition and usability of trails is a critical concern of land managers charged with providing recreational access while preserving natural conditions, and to visitors seeking high quality recreational opportunities and experiences. While an adequate number of trail management publications provide prescriptive guidance for designing, constructing, and maintaining natural-surfaced trails, surprisingly little research has been directed at providing a scientific basis for this guidance. Results from a review of the literature and three scientific studies are presented to model and clarify the influence of factors that substantially influence trail soil loss and that can be manipulated by trail professionals to sustain high traffic while minimizing soil loss over time. Key factors include trail grade, slope alignment angle, tread drainage features, and the amount of rock in tread substrates. A new Trail Sustainability Rating is developed and offered as a tool for evaluating or improving the sustainability of existing or new trails.

  3. Assessing the influence of sustainable trail design and maintenance on soil loss.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marion, Jeffrey L; Wimpey, Jeremy

    2017-03-15

    Natural-surfaced trail systems are an important infrastructure component providing a means for accessing remote protected natural area destinations. The condition and usability of trails is a critical concern of land managers charged with providing recreational access while preserving natural conditions, and to visitors seeking high quality recreational opportunities and experiences. While an adequate number of trail management publications provide prescriptive guidance for designing, constructing, and maintaining natural-surfaced trails, surprisingly little research has been directed at providing a scientific basis for this guidance. Results from a review of the literature and three scientific studies are presented to model and clarify the influence of factors that substantially influence trail soil loss and that can be manipulated by trail professionals to sustain high traffic while minimizing soil loss over time. Key factors include trail grade, slope alignment angle, tread drainage features, and the amount of rock in tread substrates. A new Trail Sustainability Rating is developed and offered as a tool for evaluating or improving the sustainability of existing or new trails. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  4. Sustaining Inner and Outer Worlds: A Whole-Systems Approach to Developing Sustainable Business Practices in Management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bradbury, Hilary

    2003-01-01

    Provides a rationale for applying holistic systems thinking to sustainable development Suggests student activities for four topics: (1) exploration of external organizational environment; (2) inner-directed exploration of the natural world; (3) exploration of the individual's world; and (4) personal impact on the larger system. (Contains 29…

  5. Forfriskende syn på bæredygtighed (Refreshing view on sustainability)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nørgaard, Jørgen

    2009-01-01

    The article is a review of a Danish book, 'Sustainability- Nature shows the Way', on 269 pages presenting a view on sustainability different from usual. A system's sustainablity is based on thermodynamics' available work, for living systems multiplied with a genetic information factor. This ascri...... reversing deforestation....

  6. A call for sustainable practice in occupational therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dennis, Carole W; Dorsey, Julie A; Gitlow, Lynn

    2015-06-01

    The ability of the earth to sustain health among humans and in the natural world is under threat from overpopulation, environmental degradation, and climate change. These global threats are anticipated to harm health and human occupation in many direct and indirect ways. Strategies are needed to mitigate the effects of these threats and to build individual and community capacities to foster resilience. This paper links issues of sustainability with occupational therapy philosophy and discusses how employing a sustainability lens with professional reasoning can help practitioners integrate sustainability into their practice. Human occupation is inseparable from the environments in which people live. Human occupation has caused the current environmental crisis, and targeted human action is required to safeguard future health and well-being. Occupational therapists have an ethical obligation to use professional reasoning strategies that, taken collectively, can help to build a sustainable and resilient future.

  7. Assessment of urban sustainability efficiency based on general data envelopment analysis: a case study of two cities in western and eastern China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Yan; Shan, Peng; Wang, Chenxing; Quan, Yuan; Wu, Di; Zhao, Chunli; Wu, Gang; Deng, Hongbing

    2017-04-01

    Sustainable urban development focuses on enhancing urban well-being, while also balancing the demands of urban social and economic development, natural resource consumption, and environmental pollution. This work used general data envelopment analysis to assess the urban sustainability efficiency (USE) and sustainability potential (SP) in Lanzhou and Xiamen, two cities that are characteristic of urban areas in western and eastern China. The assessment indicator system included important natural and urban welfare factors as input and output indices, respectively. The results showed that overall urban sustainability efficiency increased in Lanzhou and Xiamen from 1985 to 2010, but that the sustainability of natural resources clearly decreased. The urban sustainability efficiency of Xiamen was higher than that of Lanzhou, and the sustainability potential of Xiamen was lower than that of Lanzhou; this indicates that Xiamen performed better in terms of urban sustainable development. The urban sustainability efficiency in Xiamen has increased with increasing urban population, and the rate and scale of economic development have been higher than in Lanzhou. The assessment and analysis performed in this study show that cities with different natural resources and development characteristics have different forms, patterns, and trajectories of sustainable development.

  8. Sustainable intensification: A new paradigm for African agriculture

    OpenAIRE

    The Montpellier Panel

    2013-01-01

    Sub-Saharan Africa faces a rapid population growth that drives food demand and scarcity together with scarcity in natural resources such as land, water, and soil fertility. This Montpellier Panel report identifies the paradigm of sustainable intensification as a framework to address both of these issues. It provides a comprehensive overview of the sustainable intensification paradigm, which seeks to utilize existing land to maximize yields, incomes, and nutrition while minimizing negative ext...

  9. Sustaining Cultural and Natural Heritage in Albania

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arta Dollani

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available This article describes the ongoing project “School for Cultural Heritage through Map Exploitation” (SCHEME, an integrated set of activities designed to support social inclusion in heritage promotion processes in Albania. The main project goal is delivering ICT tools (map and crowdfunding platforms and procedures as well as improving the capacity of stakeholders to sustainably valorize hidden resources. The underlying approach has capitalized on existing technologies and experiences through the development of an advanced interactive multimedia map using data produced in the Ljubljana Process. Subsequently, the map will be extended by collecting more data on the Lake Ohrid Region, which has been selected as a pilot area to promote the neglected inland, relieving pressure on more famous coastal sites. A contest among schools will enrich the database, uploading multifaceted memories collected by students. The winning cultural asset will be the object of a small-scale rehabilitation project supported by a fundraising campaign through a crowdfunding platform. The centrality of people’s active participation will contribute to governance innovation by reverting to traditional top-down promotion processes and practices, in which heritage consumers represent passive recipients of ready-made offers and messages. The map platform also holds specific potential for cultural tourism purposes, avoiding mistakes in the geo-localization of sites.

  10. National strategy for sustainable development 2010-2013 - Towards a green and fair economy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2012-09-01

    For a set of 'sustainable development' challenges, this report discusses context and stakes, and strategic choices, and gives an overview of action leverages. These challenges deal with consumption and sustainable products, the knowledge society (education and training, research and development), governance, climate change and energies, sustainable transport and mobility, preservation and sustainable management of biodiversity and natural resources, public health and risk prevention and management, demography, immigration and social inclusion, international challenges in the field of sustainable development and poverty in the world

  11. INSPIA project: European Index for Sustainable and Productive Agriculture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Triviño-Tarradas, Paula; Jesús González-Sánchez, Emilio; Gómez-Ariza, Manuel; Rass, Gerard; Gardette, Sophie; Whitmore, Gavin; Dyson, Jeremy

    2017-04-01

    The concept of sustainable development has evolved from a mere perception for the protection of the environment, to a holistic approach, seeking to preserve not only the environment, but also to achieve sustainability in economics and social wellbeing. Globally, there is a major challenge to face in the agricultural sector: to produce more food, feed and other raw materials to satisfy the increasing demand of a growing population, whilst also contributing to economic prosperity, climate change mitigation / adaptation, social wellbeing and preserving natural capital such as soil, water, biodiversity and other ecosystem services. Nowadays, conventional approaches to agriculture are under threat. A more productive and resource efficient agriculture that integrates natural resource protection into its approach will help to meet all these challenges, enabling us to have more of everything - more food, more feed, more non-food crops, more biodiversity and natural habitats - while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, INSPIA is an innovative approach that has worked since 2013 towards demonstration that sustainable productive agriculture is possible thanks to the implementation of a host of best management practices (BMPs) capable of delivering the above achievements. The purpose on INSPIA is to make visible with European decision makers that a sustainable and productive agricultural model exists in a small scale in Europe and that wider dissemination is possible with enabling legislation. INSPIA is demonstrating sustainable agriculture through the implementation of BMPs and the measurement and monitoring of a set of defined indicators (economic, social and environmental ones). INSPIA promotes sustainable practices that protect biodiversity, soils and water and contribute towards maintaining ecosystems services. This holistic sustainable system of productive agriculture is based on the combination of Conservation Agriculture (CA) and Integrated Pest

  12. Sustainability and the UK’s Leading Retailers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter Jones

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper provides a review of the sustainability commitments and achievements currently being publicly reported by the UK’s leading retailers and of the nature of the reporting process, and also offers some reflections on the ways these retailers are addressing and pursuing sustainability agendas. The paper begins with a short discussion of the characteristics of sustainability and draws its empirical material from the most recent information on sustainability posted on the top ten UK retailer’s corporate websites. The findings reveal that the top ten UK retailers’ sustainability commitments and achievements embrace a wide range of environmental, social and economic issues but that the reporting process has a number of weaknesses that undermine its transparency and integrity. More critically, the authors argue that these commitments are principally driven by the search for efficiency gains and that they are couched within existing business models centered on continuing growth. Thus, the leading UK retailers are, at best, currently pursuing a “weak” rather than a “strong” model of sustainability; in pursuing continuing growth, they are effectively ignoring the fact the current patterns of consumption may be unsustainable in the long term. The paper provides an accessible review of the sustainability agendas being pursued by the UK’s leading retailers and as such it will interest academics, students and practitioners interested in retailing and corporate sustainability.

  13. Improving science education for sustainable development

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Eijck, van M.W.; Roth, W.-M.

    2007-01-01

    In recent issues of noteworthy journals, natural scientists have argued for the improvement of science education [1–4]. Such pleas reflect the growing awareness that high-quality science education is required not only for sustaining a lively scientific community that is able to address global

  14. Driving on Natural Gas, Greening the Gasunie Fleet

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Faber, Tom

    2008-01-01

    Driving on CNG is preferable to conventional fuels because of diversification of the energy mix, local availability of natural gas, the financial benefit and the transition function towards (sustain-able) biogas and emission reduction. Furthermore, the CNG technology is expected to be safer than

  15. Hunting with lead ammunition is not sustainable: European perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kanstrup, Niels; Swift, John; Stroud, David A; Lewis, Melissa

    2018-03-12

    Much evidence demonstrates the adverse effects of lead ammunition on wildlife, their habitats and human health, and confirms that the use of such ammunition has no place within sustainable hunting. We identify the provisions that define sustainable hunting according to European law and international treaties, together with their guidance documents. We accept the substantial evidence for lead's actual and potential effects on wildlife, habitats and health as persuasive and assess how these effects relate to stated provisions for sustainability and hunting. We evaluate how continued use of lead ammunition negatively affects international efforts to halt loss of biodiversity, sustain wildlife populations and conserve their habitats. We highlight the indiscriminate and avoidable health and welfare impacts for large numbers of exposed wild animals as ethically unsustainable. In societal terms, continued use of lead ammunition undermines public perceptions of hunting. Given the existence of acceptable, non-toxic alternatives for lead ammunition, we conclude that hunting with lead ammunition cannot be justified under established principles of public/international policy and is not sustainable. Changing from lead ammunition to non-toxic alternatives will bring significant nature conservation and human health gains, and from the hunter's perspective will enhance societal acceptance of hunting. Change will create opportunities for improved constructive dialogue between hunting stakeholders and others engaged with enhancing biodiversity and nature conservation objectives.

  16. Wood-Based Nanotechnologies toward Sustainability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Feng; Li, Tian; Li, Yiju; Zhang, Ying; Gong, Amy; Dai, Jiaqi; Hitz, Emily; Luo, Wei; Hu, Liangbing

    2018-01-01

    With over 30% global land coverage, the forest is one of nature's most generous gifts to human beings, providing shelters and materials for all living beings. Apart from being sustainable, renewable, and biodegradable, wood and its derivative materials are also extremely fascinating from a materials aspect, with numerous advantages including porous and hierarchical structure, excellent mechanical performance, and versatile chemistry. Here, strategies for designing novel wood-based materials via advanced nanotechnologies are summarized, including both the controllable bottom-up assembly from the highly crystalline nanocellulose building block and the more efficient top-down approaches directly from wood. Beyond material design, recent advances regarding the sustainable applications of these novel wood-based materials are also presented, focusing on areas that are traditionally dominated by man-made nonrenewable materials such as plastic, glass, and metals, as well as more advanced applications in the areas of energy storage, wastewater treatment and solar-steam-assisted desalination. With all recent progress pertaining to materials' design and sustainable applications presented, a vision for the future engineering of wood-based materials to promote continuous and healthy progress toward true sustainability is outlined. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  17. The sustainable project management: A review and future possibilities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V.K. Chawla

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available Sustainability in project operations such as financial, social and environmental sustainability is one of the most prominent issues of the present times to address. The increased focus on sus-tainable business operations has changed the viewpoint of researchers and corporate community towards the project management. Today sustainability in business operations along with sustain-ability of natural and environmental resources are of paramount significance which has further caused a huge impact on conception, planning, scheduling and execution of the project manage-ment activities. In this paper, a literature review between 1987 and 2018 on different issues af-fecting the sustainability in project management is carried out. The present study also identifies and discusses the future possibilities to apply computational procedures in order to estimate and optimize the sustainability issues in the management of projects, for example the computational evolutionary algorithms can be applied to formulate the multi-objective decision-making problem after considering critical factors of sustainability in the projects and then yielding optimized solu-tions for the formulated problem to achieve sustainability in the projects. A new integrated framework with the inclusion of feedback function for assessment of each decision and actions taken towards the sustainability of the projects is also identified and presented.

  18. ECO-INNOVATION FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    RATIU Mariana

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Eco-innovation is any form of innovation resulting in or aiming at significant and demonstrable progress towards the goal of sustainable development, through reducing impacts on the environment, enhancing resilience to environmental pressures, or achieving a more efficient and responsible use of natural resources. States and governments of the world, different institutions and organizations actively involved and aware in public policies, strategies and actions, reaffirm their commitments and reassess actions in order to achieve a truly sustainable development. In the common vision and the resolutions and other documents of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, the words "environment", "innovation", "green economy" appear very often and almost always along the same context, to achieve the objectives of the sustainable development. The objectives of EU's Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, are being implemented through a number of Flagship Initiatives addressing the main challenges, like “Innovation for a sustainable Future - The Eco-innovation Action Plan (EcoAP”. Eco-innovation Observatory developed the Eco-Innovation index, the first tool to assess and illustrate eco-innovation performance across the EU Member States. Like in all fields, in textiles and leather field, eco-innovation is present and there are a lot of tools available that measure environmental damage and help manufacturers and brands become more sustainable. Eco-innovation is not just a trendy concept but a reality and a necessity nowadays, a way to achieve a sustainable future for ourselves and future generations.

  19. Sustainability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Chein-Chi; DiGiovanni, Kimberly; Mei, Ying; Wei, Li

    2016-10-01

    This review on Sustainability covers selected 2015 publications on the focus of Sustainability. It is divided into the following sections : • Sustainable water and wastewater utilities • Sustainable water resources management • Stormwater and green infrastructure • Sustainability in wastewater treatment • Life cycle assessment (LCA) applications • Sustainability and energy in wastewater industry, • Sustainability and asset management.

  20. Russian Cosmism, Global Crisis, Sustainable Development

    OpenAIRE

    Kuznetsov Oleg; Bolshakov Boris

    2013-01-01

    The article is based on the scientific report by O.L.Kuznetsov and B.E.Bolshakov at the General Meeting of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (December 6, 2012). The scientific report caused a great interest, and many scientists suggested to open discussion in the press on this subject. The article reveals the natural-scientific and humanitarian mechanisms of global crisis and a transition way to sustainable development on the basis of world scientific heritage and, first of all, fundamental...

  1. Participatory GIS for Sustainable Management of Natural Resources ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    This project aims to improve the situation by harnessing the potential of ... their information systems on the management of natural resources (water, forests, ... Systèmes d'information géographique participatifs (SIG-P) dans la gestion des ...

  2. Land degradation causes and sustainable land management practices in southern Jordan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khresat, Saeb

    2014-05-01

    Jordan is one of the world's most water-deficit countries with only about 4% of the total land area considered arable. As a consequence agricultural production is greatly constrained by limited natural resources. Therefore, a major challenge for the country is to promote the sustainable use of natural resources for agricultural purposes. This challenge is being made harder by the ongoing processes of degradation due to increased population pressure, which undermine any social and economic development gains. In the southern plains of Jordan, sustainability of farming practices has worsened in the past three decades, exacerbating pressure on land and increasing land degradation processes. Non-sustainable land use practices include improper ploughing, inappropriate rotations, inadequate or inexistent management of plant residues, overgrazing of natural vegetation, random urbanization, land fragmentation and over-pumping of groundwater. The root cause is the high population growth which exerts excessive pressure on the natural resources to meet increased food and income demand. The poorest farmers who are increasingly growing cereals on marginal areas. Wheat and barley are now grown with little to no rotation, with no nutrient replenishment, and at places avoiding even fallow. Small landholding sizes and topographic features of the area tend to oblige longitudinal mechanized tillage operations along the slopes. Overall, the constraints facing the deprived land users such as, poor access to technology, capital and organization are the factors that lead into unsustainable practices. The main bottlenecks and barriers that hinder mainstreaming of sustainable land management in Jordan can be grouped into three main categories: (i) Knowledge, (ii) Institutional and Governance, and (iii) Economic and Financial. In this case study, the key challenge was to create a knowledge base among local stakeholders - including planners, extension officers, NGO/community leaders, teachers

  3. Mexican energy policy and sustainability indicators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sheinbaum-Pardo, Claudia; Ruiz-Mendoza, Belizza Janet; Rodríguez-Padilla, Víctor

    2012-01-01

    The authors analyze the Mexican energy policy taking as reference the methodological framework for sustainable energy development proposed by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. This methodology takes eight related indicators to the social, environmental and economic dimensions in order to calculate a general sustainability indicator for the energy sector. In this methodology, the weight of each dimension is different; namely, the social and environmental issues have less relevance than the economic issues. The authors use this methodology because government institutions as the Department of Energy and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources have used some indicators from such a methodology to propose plans, programs, projects and bills. Authors know of the existence of other methodologies about sustainability. Nonetheless, opting for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean's methodology is convenient because this organization is a respectable authority for civil servants from the Mexican institutions. Our objective is just to contrast the sustainability grade of the energy sector between 1990 and 2008 for Mexico whose government started reforms in the 1990s. It concludes that those reforms did not bring about a higher sustainability level for the energy sector. - Highlights: ► We used the OLADE, CEPAL and GTZ's methodology to calculate sustainability indicators for the Mexican energy sector. ► We studied the Mexican energy policy from 1990 to date and presented it. ► Currently, the Mexican energy sector is less sustainable than in 1990.

  4. Dynamics of sustainability in integrated agriculture : aquaculture systems in the Mekong Delta

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Phong, L.T.

    2010-01-01

    Key words: Mekong Delta; IAA; ECOPATH; Nutmon; LCA; environmental impact; sustainability

    In the Mekong Delta (MD), intensification and modernization of crop, fish and livestock production causes concern about sustainable use of natural resources. The objectives of this research were to

  5. Ecosystem services for meeting sustainable development goals: Challenges and pathways

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huq Nazmul

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper summarizes four presentations of the session “Environment and Wellbeing: The Role of Ecosystems for Sustainable Development” at the international conference “Sustainability in the Water- Energy-Food Nexus” held on 19-20th May 2014 in Bonn, Germany. The aim of the session was to present current stresses on ecosystem services imposed by global development trajectory, potential impacts on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs and pathways to achieve SDGs. All four presentations agreed that global ecosystem services are under increasing pressure from degradation and may not be able to meet the growing Water-Energy- Food (WEF demands especially for the developing world. Three examples from Tanzania, Cambodia and Niger made attempt to understand how governance policies attributed to natural resource depletion such as forestry and common grazing. The examples showed that governance policies favoring economic development are heavily contributing to clearing up natural resource bases. As a result, there were increasing conflicts among different resource user groups. Two other presentations introduce conceptual pathways to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs under current resource stressed regime. The pathways suggested global technologies, decentralized solutions and consumption changes as the major means of achieving global sustainability and poverty eradication without any major trade-offs.

  6. Ecosystem services for meeting sustainable development goals: Challenges and pathways

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huq Nazmul

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper summarizes four presentations of the session “Environment and Wellbeing: The Role of Ecosystems for Sustainable Development” at the international conference “Sustainability in the Water- Energy-Food Nexus” held on 19-20th May 2014 in Bonn, Germany. The aim of the session was to present current stresses on ecosystem services imposed by global development trajectory, potential impacts on future Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs and pathways to achieve SDGs. All four presentations agreed that global ecosystem services are under increasing pressure from degradation and may not be able to meet the growing Water-Energy-Food (WEF demands especially for the developing world. Three examples from Tanzania, Cambodia and Niger made attempt to understand how government policies attributed to natural resource depletion such as forestry and common grazing. The examples showed that institutional policies favoring economic development contributing heavily to clearing up natural resource bases. As a result, there were increasing conflicts among different resource user groups. Two other presentations introduce conceptual pathways to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs under current resource stressed regime. The pathways suggested global technologies, decentralized solutions and consumption changes as the major means of achieving global sustainability and poverty eradication without any major trade-offs.

  7. Sustainable and non-conventional monitoring systems to mitigate natural hazards in low income economies: the 4onse project approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cannata, Massimiliano; Ratnayake, Rangajeewa; Antonovic, Milan; Strigaro, Daniele

    2017-04-01

    Environmental monitoring systems in low economies countries are often in decline, outdated or missing with the consequence that there is a very scarce availability and accessibility to these information that are vital for coping and mitigating natural hazards. Non-conventional monitoring systems based on open technologies may constitute a viable solution to create low cost and sustainable monitoring systems that may be fully developed, deployed and maintained at local level without lock-in dependances on copyrights or patents or high costs of replacements. The 4onse research project , funded under the Research for Development program of the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Office for Development and Cooperation, propose a complete monitoring system that integrates Free & Open Source Software, Open Hardware, Open Data, and Open Standards. After its engineering, it will be tested in the Deduru Oya catchment (Sri Lanka) to evaluate the system and develop a water management information system to optimize the regulation of artificial basins levels and mitigate flash floods. One of the objective is to better scientifically understand strengths, criticalities and applicabilities in terms of data quality; system durability; management costs; performances; sustainability. Results, challenges and experiences from the first six months of the projects will be presented with particular focus on the activities of synergies building and data collection and dissemination system advances.

  8. Modeling Factors with Influence on Sustainable University Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oana Dumitrascu

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The main objective of this paper is to present the factors with influence on the sustainable university management and the relationships between them. In the scientific approach we begin from a graphical model, according to which the extracurricular activities together with internal environmental factors influence students’ involvement in such activities, the university attractiveness, their academic performance and their integration into the socially-economic and natural environment (components related with sustainable development. The model emphasizes that individual performances, related to students’ participation in extracurricular activities, have a positive influence on the sustainability of university management. The results of the study have shown that the university sustainability may be influenced by a number of factors, such as students’ performance, students’ involvement in extracurricular activities or university’s attractiveness and can in turn influence implicitly also the sustainability of university management. The originality of the paper consists in the relationships study using the modeling method in general and informatics tools of modeling in particular, as well as through graphical visualization of some influences, on the sustainability university management.

  9. SUSTAINABILITY IN TOURISM THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION APPLIED TO ITINERARIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guillermina FERNANDEZ

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The history of the relationship between man’s activities and the environment has not been a harmonious one, and tourism is no exception. This article gives a brief overview of the impacts caused by the tourism, on both the natural environment and built environments, establishing that the only way to avoid, or at least minimize these negative effects is to develop sustainable tourism, seeking socioenvironmental and economic balance. One of the ways of achieving this sustainable development is through environmental education and the theme of didactic itineraries, in particular, is discussed as a form of raising awareness among the tourists concerning the importance of preserving the natural and cultural environment.  

  10. University engagement and regional sustainability initiatives

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lehmann, Martin; Christensen, Per; Thrane, Mikkel

    2009-01-01

    With an outset in ‘sustainability' defined as a continuous process requiring balance between (the emergence of) problems and our ability and capability to solve them using four distinct capitals available, i.e. natural, production, human and intellectual, and social capital, a model of universities...... University, Denmark, the linkages (actual, potential and missing) between academic work in research and education and sustainability initiatives are explored. The focus is both on the university's core activities as a provider of research and education and on the university's activities as an organisation, i...... societal benefit would be the ability to better cope with emerging problems endangering the sustainable development of our societies. It is concluded that Aalborg University with its long tradition for project-based and problem-oriented learning in fact has every opportunity to be able to lead by example...

  11. Participatory Research and Development for Sustainable Agriculture ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    It is crucial, for example, that local stakeholders provide input to the process. Participatory research and ... Participatory Research and Development for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management - A Sourcebook Volume 2: Enabling Participatory Research and Development. Book cover Participatory ...

  12. Day one sustainability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orr, John; Ibell, Timothy; Evernden, Mark; Darby, Antony

    2015-05-01

    Emissions reductions targets for the UK set out in the Climate Change Act for the period to 2050 will only be achieved with significant changes to the built environment, which is currently estimated to account for 50% of the UK's carbon emissions. The socio-technological nature of Civil Engineering means that this field is uniquely placed to lead the UK through such adaptations. This paper discusses the importance of interdisciplinary teaching to produce multi-faceted team approaches to sustainable design solutions. Methods for measuring success in education are often not fit for purpose, producing good students but poor engineers. Real-world failures to apply sustainable design present a serious, difficult to detect, and ultimately economically negative situation. Techniques to replace summative examinations are presented and discussed, with the aim of enhancing core technical skills alongside those required for sustainable design. Finally, the role of our future engineers in policy-making is discussed. In addition to carbon, the provision of water and food will heavily influence the work of civil engineers in the coming decades. Leadership from civil engineers with the technical knowledge and social awareness to tackle these issues will be required. This provides both opportunities and challenges for engineering education in the UK.

  13. Sustainable Supply Chain Engagement in a Retail Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anika Berning

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Sustainability is a key requirement for business success and is often regarded a competitive advantage if strategically managed. Sustainability-mature organisations look to their value chains where the retailer-supplier collaboration becomes critical in embedding sustainability. With this in mind, it is important to monitor retailer-supplier collaboration to determine whether it is effective. To facilitate this monitoring, the UN Global Compact Supply Chain Sustainability: A Guide for Continuous Improvement was consulted. The research question aimed to determine the progress of a prominent South African retailer regarding their sustainable supply chain management (SSCM and collaboration with suppliers. Therefore, this study attempts to apply the Supplier Engagement Continuum, extracted from the UN Global Compact Supply Chain Sustainability: A Guide for Continuous Improvement, in order to determine how the retailer is progressing in sustainable supply chain management. The qualitative and exploratory nature of the study necessitated a case study research design, while the technique of purposive sampling was used to select the sample of three suppliers. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews facilitated by an interview guide, and data analysis was conducted with Atlas.ti software. It was found that the retailer’s sustainable supply chain management can only be located on level one of the continuum. Supply chain sustainability in organisations lack the theoretical foundation of what sustainability really is. Therefore, the model was amended and an additional level was added to incorporate the education of sustainability.

  14. Probiotics: In Depth

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... G, et al. Probiotics and oral health . Current Pharmaceutical Design. 2012;18(34):5522–5531. Black LI, ... et al. Probiotics: finding the right regulatory balance . Science. 2013;342(6156):314–315. Hungin AP, Mulligan ...

  15. Measuring Sustainable Indigenous Tourism Indicators: A Case of Mah Meri Ethnic Group in Carey Island, Malaysia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Puvaneswaran Kunasekaran

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Sustainable tourism emphasises responsible utilisation of economic, socio-cultural and environmental resources for tourism development. Extant literature in sustainable tourism leans towards subjective and qualitative description in explaining the dynamic nature of the trans-disciplinary indicators of sustainability. However, few mechanisms have been proposed or developed to quantify the indicators measuring sustainable tourism in an indigenous ethnic context. The current study measures 61 sustainable indigenous tourism indicators of the Mah Meri ethnic group that comprise three constructs, namely, community resources, community development and sustainable tourism. Simple random sampling was employed for data elicitation and a weighted average score using R software as the basis of analysis was used to produce a sustainable indigenous tourism barometer (SITB. The study identifies 11 sustainability dimensions from the initial three main constructs that are treated as the relationship aspects in this study. Based on the Sustainable Indigenous Tourism Barometer (SITB, community participation, empowerment, economic and socio-cultural sustainability are found to be the main influencing dimensions of sustainability of the Mah Meri ethnic group. However, natural resources, financial resources and environmental sustainability indicated weaker relationships in explaining sustainability of the Mah Meri ethnic group. Based on the SITB, the results demonstrate that the Mah Meri ethnic group are a “potential sustainable” tourism stakeholder.

  16. Creating the Urban Village: Teaching Pre-Service Teachers about Sustainable Design in Architecture and Community Planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vande Zande, Robin

    2010-01-01

    Sustainable design is a philosophy adopted by people concerned with the health of society and the natural environment. The practice of sustainable design works toward the improvement of the quality of the built environment, while reducing or eradicating the negative impact on the natural environment (McLennan 2004). It is a philosophical approach…

  17. Makahiki: An Open Source Serious Game Framework for Sustainability Education and Conservation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Yongwen; Johnson, Philip M.; Lee, George E.; Moore, Carleton A.; Brewer, Robert S.

    2014-01-01

    Sustainability education and conservation have become an international imperative due to the rising cost of energy, increasing scarcity of natural resource and irresponsible environmental practices. This paper presents Makahiki, an open source serious game framework for sustainability, which implements an extensible framework for different…

  18. Ecologically sustainable chemical recommendations for agricultural pest control?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomson, Linda J; Hoffmann, Ary A

    2007-12-01

    Effective pest control remains an essential part of food production, and it is provided both by chemicals and by natural enemies within agricultural ecosystems. These methods of control are often in conflict because of the negative impact of chemicals on natural enemies. There are already well-established approaches such as those provided by the International Organization for Biological and Integrated Control-Pesticides and Beneficial Organisms for testing, collecting, and publishing information on responses of natural enemies to chemicals based on laboratory responses of specific organisms; however, these tests do not assess the cumulative impact of chemical inputs across an entire season or consider impacts on the complex communities of natural enemies that can provide effective pest control on a farm. Here, we explore the potential of different approaches for assessing the impact of chemicals on agricultural ecosystems and we propose a simple metric for sustainable chemical use on farms that minimizes overall impact on beneficial groups. We suggest ways in which the effectiveness of metrics can be extended to include persistence and habitat features. Such metrics can assist farmers in developing targets for sustainable chemical use as demonstrated in the viticultural industry.

  19. Participatory GIS for Sustainable Management of Natural Resources ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    18 févr. 2010 ... African countries need adequate data as a basis for formulating and implementing systematic and coherent food security policies and strategies. These countries have national information systems with geospatial information on natural resources and composed of different subsystems (laws, cadastres, ...

  20. Sustainability in product development: a proposal for classification of approaches

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrícia Flores Magnago

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The product development is a process that addresses sustainability issues inside companies. Many approaches have been discussed in academy concerning sustainability, as Natural Capitalism, Design for Environment (DfE and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA, but a question arises: which is indicated for what circumstance? This article aim is the proposition of a classification, based on a literature review, for 15 of these approaches. The criteria were: (i approach nature, (ii organization level, (iii integration level in Product Development Process (PDP, and (iv approach relevance for sustainability dimensions. Common terms allowed the establishment of connections among the approaches. As a result the researchers concluded that, despite they come from distinct knowledge areas they are not mutually excludent, on the contrary, the approaches may be used in a complementary way by managers. The combined use of complementary approaches is finally suggested in the paper.

  1. Biosphere reserves – learning sites of sustainable development?

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Kušová, Drahomíra; Těšitel, Jan; Bartoš, Michael

    2008-01-01

    Roč. 14, č. 3 (2008), s. 221-234 ISSN 1211-7420 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60870520 Keywords : nature protection * learning sites * biosphere reserves * sustainable development Subject RIV: DO - Wilderness Conservation

  2. BUILDING INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN MONTENEGRO

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bosiljka Vuković

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available There are many proofs confirming the importance of sustainable development for Montenegro. Shared international challenges, global economic crisis, and, particularly, the country's natural characteristics emphasize that sustainable development is the only way ahead. In 2002 Montenegro formed the National Council for Sustainable Development; in 2005 the Office for Sustainable Development was established, and the National Strategy of Sustainable Development was adopted in 2007. With these developments, Montenegro created the most advanced institutional basis for sustainable development in its region. After carefully observing the functioning of national sustainable development institutions, however, the Office for Sustainable Development embarked upon the process of their reform in 2008. As a result, the Council was fundamentally reformed, having its membership downsized and composition transformed. Two Annual Reports on the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Strategy have been completed and the process of defining sustainable development indicators commenced in co-operation with the United Nations. This paper critically examines the evolution of the set-up of the Montenegrin sustainable development system, presents the advantages and disadvantages of the government-anchored Council. Based on the lessons learnt, it presents recommendations for policy makers on promoting and enforcing sustainable development. The paper argues that only by effectively co-ordinating all segments of society and ensuring genuine participation of outside-government stakeholders, the countries can ensure that sustainable development principles are incorporated in national and local policies. The independence and pro-activeness in approach of sustainable development institutions is essential in ensuring the supremacy of sustainable practices in decision-making. Considering the similarities in historic, economic and social developments of the former socialist

  3. Incorporating Sustainability and Green Design Concepts into Engineering and Technology Curricula

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Radian G. Belu

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Human society is facing an uncertain future due to the present day unsustainable use of natural resources and the growing imbalance with our natural environment. Sustainability is an endeavour with uncertain outcomes requiring collaboration, teamwork, and abilities to work with respect and learn from other disciplines and professions, as well as with governments, local communities, political and civic organizations. The creation of a sustainable society is a complex and multi-stage endeavour that will dominate twenty first century.  Sustainability has four basic aspects: environment, technology, economy, and societal organization. Schools with undergraduate engineering or engineering technology programs are working to include sustainability and green design concepts into their curricula. Teaching sustainability and green design has increasingly become an essential feature of the present day engineering education. It applies to all of engineering, as all engineered systems interact with the environment in complex and important ways. Our project main goals are to provide the students with multiple and comprehensive exposures, to what it mean to have a sustainable mindset and to facilitate the development of the passion and the skills to integrate sustainable practices into engineering tools and methods. In this study we are describing our approaches to incorporating sustainability and green design into our undergraduate curricula and to list a variety of existing resources that can easily be adopted or adapted by our faculty for this purpose. Our approaches are: (1 redesigning existing courses through development of new curricular materials that still meet the objectives of the original course and (2 developing upper division elective courses that address specific topics related to sustainability, green design, green manufacturing and life-cycle assessment. 

  4. SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN RURAL REGION: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE ALTAI TERRITORY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. G. Redkin

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Aggravation of global environmental problems in the second half of XX century set the task of search of new options for modern world evolution. Thus in one of the first reports – «World Conversation Strategy», published in 1980 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the concept of sustainable development was just being discussed, in 1987 the World Commission on Environment and Development in the renowned report «Our Common Future» recognized sustainable development as the central guiding principle for civilization (Our Common Future 1989. By the middle of the 1990s all fields of economic activity including tourism were incorporated with a view to the long-term development. First appeared in the materials of the World Conference on Sustainable Tourism (Lanzarote in 1995 the concepts of sustainable tourism development and sustainable tourism have gained increasing importance and were inscribed into many UNWTO documents and initiatives (Seselkin 2014. There’ so no well-established definition of sustainable tourism for now, while there’s distinct vision and framework approach to how it should be. Sustainable tourism is tourism that meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future development, capable to adapt to specific ethnic and cultural environment, meeting the requirements of social justice, ecologically compatible and retaining the economic advantages (Arsenyeva and others. Various types of tourism can be the basis for sustainable tourism industry in various regions. It must be the type most appealing for local community which by integrating other types of tourism will form tourist destinations due to the principles of sustainable development. Rural tourism serves as the basis for sustainable tourism in Altai krai.

  5. Long-Term Sustainable Development of Tourism in South Tyrol: An Analysis of Tourists’ Perception

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katia Laura Sidali

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Although sustainable tourism concepts are gaining in importance everywhere, related research is quite fragmented with many studies concentrating on environmental sustainability. Seeking to contribute to the general discussion, we first examine the perceptions of sustainability among tourists using a best–worst scaling method applied to important aspects of sustainable tourism. Our results show that experiencing nature in an intense and profound way is considered the most important aspect of sustainable tourism whereas grappling with the culture of the host region is perceived as the least important aspect of sustainable tourism in our sample. Second, we analyze if socio-demographic and/or other factors have significant implications for the propensity to increase expenditures for sustainable holiday offers. Applying a simple regression model, we can show that age has a significant and positive impact on the propensity to spend more on a sustainable holiday offer such as overnight stays in an accommodation that is carbon-neutral. Other socio-demographic variables such as gender, education, and income are not significant. Moreover, hotel stars and average expenditures per person per night are significant and have a positive effect on the propensity to spend more on carbon-neutral housing. Two simple policy implications can be drawn: (1 sustainable tourism experiences should prioritize landscape and natural beauty; and (2 sustainable tourism offers are best suited for higher-priced and/or higher starred hotels.

  6. Competencies in Education for Sustainable Development: Exploring the Student Teachers’ Views

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gisela Cebrián

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available In the context of higher education, over 100 universities have signed international declarations and have committed to embed sustainability within their operations, outreach, education and research. However, despite the declaration of good intentions and policy developments at the national, regional and international level, little has been achieved in terms of embedding education for sustainable development holistically in the curriculum. To date, a number of research studies have focused on the perceptions and views of university students in relation to sustainable development knowledge, skills and competencies; however, few studies have focused on student teachers’ perceptions of education for sustainable development. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions and views of a group of thirty-two student teachers in relation to education for sustainable development competencies. The research instrument used was a questionnaire. This study provides evidence on the education for sustainable development (ESD competencies that student teachers would prioritize in a school project related to ESD: acquisition of knowledge and practical skills related to nature and natural sciences, to the detriment of other types of learning, such as the promotion of ethical values, positive attitudes towards sustainability and the management of emotions among their future primary school students. Existing ESD theoretical frameworks need to become more alive and integrated within the existing teacher education curriculum to promote the awareness and development of ESD competencies amongst student teachers.

  7. USA today : being and becoming, sustainable architecture in the USA

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Heine, U. [Clemson Univ., Charleston, SC (United States). School of Architecture

    2009-07-01

    This paper defined the term sustainability in reference to contemporary architecture. It addressed the pre-conditions needed to implement the principles of sustainability in American Architecture, using Germany as an example to find climate change solutions for the United States. In order to address current ecological challenges, architects are urged to design building that reduce daily energy consumption. In preparing architecture students for their professional lives, the moral issues of sustainability must be anchored in them such that they become conscious of their responsibilities as future architects to reintegrate civilization into natural energy cycles by using renewable forms of energy. Wind, geothermal, solar, water, tidal, biomass and waste energy technologies are all sufficiently established and their geographical dispersion would make it easy to ensure adequate stability despite fluctuations in the power-supply network. This paper outlined the status of the energy crisis and presented sustainable measures for America in terms of passive energy housing, zero energy housing and energy plus housing. It was concluded that energy efficient buildings have become quantifiable and that architects should include the ideas of sustainability in their working methods. Sustainability aims to merge socio-cultural, ecological and economic aspects, integrating form and function, construction and aesthetics, architecture and nature in a complex ensemble. Buildings which appear to be more affordable, may be the more expensive solution in the long term if they do not contribute to environmental protection. 5 refs., 3 figs.

  8. The impact of desert solar power utilization on sustainable development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sadiq Ali Shah; Yang Zhang

    2011-01-01

    This paper evaluates the prospects of developing a solar based desert economy in the deserts of solar-rich countries. The potential deserts are analysed to study their positive impact on the sustainable development processes in these regions. The sustainability of the processes is established on the basis of self-contained nature of energy generation, environmental emission reduction and desert land reclamation. (authors)

  9. Nature, economics, property and commons. Subversive notes inspired by Elinor Ostrom

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lauriola Vincenzo M.

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Nature-economy relations also are the result of economics’ concepts, ideas and paradigms. Heterodox economic views and paradigms are urgently needed to foster shifts towards the planet’s future sustainability paths. Elinor Ostrom, 2009 Nobel economics laureate, stands as one of the authors whose long neglected views are most inspiring in subverting mainstream paradigms on property regimes and natural resource management. Challenging the tragedy of the commons orthodoxy, she shows humans are able to escape the prisoner’s dilemma, as well as the public vs private property, and state vs market modern dichotomy in natural resources’ management models, by recognizing common property as a third option, and re-inventing the commons as indeed diverse and resilient institutions to foster more sustainable economy-nature relations. Brazil’s indigenous territories are cited as a living example of commons’ sustainability, although increasingly threatened by economic growth.

  10. Transforming early childhood education for sustainable development

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper examined the ways in which early childhood education needs to be transformed for sustainable development. These ways include teaching children environmental security through play, personal hygiene, appropriate waste use and disposal, and nature awareness. It was recommended that early childhood ...

  11. Sustainable development in a developing economy: Challenges ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Sustainable development implies development which ensures maximization of human well being for today's generation which does not lead to declines in future well being. Attaining this path requires eliminating those negative externalities that are responsible for natural resource depletion and environmental degradation.

  12. Introduction: Features of environmental sustainability in agriculture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dalgaard, Tommy; Ferrari, S; Rambonilaza, M

    2006-01-01

    This introductive paper aims to address the features of environmental sustainability in agriculture. Recent developments of the concept, which are discussed here, emphasise its multi-faceted nature and lead to various definitions as well as to different implications for policy measures in society...

  13. The Road Towards Sustainable Rural Development : Issues of Theory, Policy and Research Practice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Marsden, T.; Banks, J.; Renting, H.; Ploeg, van der J.D.

    2001-01-01

    Developing a more widespread diffusion of sustainable agricultural practices as part of progressing rural sustainable development is being hampered by different modes of environmental social thought. This introduction to this special issue on Reconstituting of nature through rural development

  14. Emergy sustainability index of a milk producing unit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edmar Eduardo Bassan Mendes

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Although small, the impacts caused by agriculture and livestock productive activities change the environment, which in turn reflects the stress conditions it is under. Some authors these environmental changes occur for countless reasons, many so-called natural while others are due to anthropogenic interventions. This study aims to assess milk production sustainability using the emergy analysis of indicators, considering the annual cycles of production to help decision making. A conceptual model of the milk production system using the Emergy flow chart was built at the Livestock and Agricultural Production Unit (UPA of the Alto da Arauna Farm, located in Guzolândia, SP. After data processing, the emergy calculation table was elaborated. Several emergy sustainability indices were calculated and analyzed (indicators Renewability of Emergy Used Total, Index of Environmental Load Ratio of Investment Ratio Emergia beyond the calculations Tranformidades among others including the Emergy Sustainability Index (ESI. The results showed that the UPA has a high impact per unit of energy source used to produce milk for the general public. The agricultural production systems with ESI value less than one (1 can be considered unsustainable in the long term. The studied UPA has good working conditions and soil conservation, but has a highly disproportionate use of economy inputs in relation to natural resources, which results in low ESI value. The analysis of this ratio indicated low system efficiency. Several management practices and interventions were proposed aiming at improving sustainability indicators of the production system.  Furthermore, strategies were formulated for more sustainable management of this UPA, thus reducing the impacts of the production system in use. The adoption of methods similar to organic production, agroecological systems, integration between farming and livestock, and/or adoption of silvopastoral system are recommended to improve

  15. Study benefit value of utilization water resources for energy and sustainable environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juniah, Restu; Sastradinata, Marwan

    2017-11-01

    Referring to the concept of sustainable development, the environment is said to be sustainable if the fulfillment of three pillars of development that is economic, social and ecological or the environment itself. The environment can sustained in the principle of ecology or basic principles of environmental science, when the three environmental components, namely the natural environment, the artificial environment (the built environment) and the social environment can be aligned for sustainability. The natural environment in this study is the water resources, the artificial environment is micro hydroelectric power generation (MHPG), and the social environment is the community living around the MHPG. The existence of MHPG is intended for the sustainability of special electrical energy for areas not yet reached by electricity derived from the state electricity company (SEC). The utilization of MHPG Singalaga in South Ogan Komering Ulu (OKUS) district is not only intended for economic, ecological, and social sustainability in Southern OKU district especially those who live in Singalaga Village, Kisam Tinggi District. This paper discusses the economic, ecological and social benefits of water resources utilization in Southern OKU District for MHPG Singalaga. The direct economic benefits that arise for people living around MHPG Singalaga is the cost incurred by the community for the use of electricity is less than if the community uses electricity coming from outside the MHPG. The cost to society in the form of dues amounting to IDR 15,000 a month / household. Social benefits with the absorption of manpower to manage the MHPG is chairman, secretary and 3 members, while the ecological benefits of water resources and sustainable energy as well as the community while maintaining the natural vegetation that is located around the MHPG for the continuity of water resources.

  16. The concept and principles of sustainable architectural design for national parks in Serbia

    OpenAIRE

    Milošević Predrag

    2004-01-01

    The paper elaborates the concept of sustainable architectural design that has come to the forefront in the last 20 years, and in the light of the National Park. This concept recognizes that human civilization is an integral part of the natural world and that nature must be preserved and perpetuated if the human community itself is to survive. Sustainable design articulates this idea through developments that exemplify the principles of conservation and encourage the application of those princ...

  17. The dual sustainability of wind energy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Welch, Jonathan B.; Venkateswaran, Anand [413 Hayden Hall, College of Business, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 (United States)

    2009-06-15

    Academics, practitioners, and policy makers continue to debate the benefits and costs of alternative sources of energy. Environmental and economic concerns have yet to be fully reconciled. One view is that decisions that incorporate both society's concern with the environment and investors' desire for shareholder value maximization are more likely to be truly sustainable. We coin the term dual sustainability to mean the achievement of environmental and financial sustainability simultaneously. Many experts believe that wind energy can help to meet society's needs without harming future generations. It is clean and renewable. Because the fuel is free it provides the ultimate in energy independence. Wind energy has emerged as a leading prospect, in part, because it is considered by many to be environmentally sustainable. However, a key question that remains is whether wind energy is financially sustainable without the extensive government support that has helped to create and nurture this growth industry. Using reliable, proprietary data from field research, our analysis employs a capital budgeting framework to evaluate the financial economics of investments in wind energy. We find that because of the convergence of improved technology, greater efficiency, and with the increasing cost of traditional, competing sources such as oil and natural gas, wind energy is close to becoming self-sustaining financially without the extensive federal government support that exists today. Wind energy can provide the best of both worlds. It is sustainable from an environmental perspective and it is becoming sustainable financially. In short, those companies investing in wind energy will be able to do well by doing good. Perhaps the achievement of dual sustainability is true sustainability. Our research findings and dual sustainability have several interesting and important implications for public policy towards wind energy. All imply that public policy can now be

  18. The Multi-Sector Sustainability Browser (MSSB): A Tool for ...

    Science.gov (United States)

    The MSSB is the first and only decision support tool containing information from scientific literature and technical reports that can be used to develop and implement sustainability initiatives. The MSSB is designed to assist individuals and communities in understanding the impacts that the four key dimensions of sustainability - Land Use, Buildings and Infrastructure, Transportation, and Materials Management - can have on human health, the economy, the built environment and natural environments. The MSSB has the following capabilities: a. Displays and describes linkages between the four major sustainability concepts (Land Use, Buildings and Infrastructure, Transportation, and Materials Management) and their subordinate concepts. b. Displays and lists literature sources and references (including weblinks where applicable) providing information about each major sustainability concept and its associated subordinate concepts. c. Displays and lists quantitative data related to each major sustainability concept and its associated subordinate concepts, with weblinks where applicable.The MSSB serves as a ‘visual database’, allowing users to: investigate one or more of the four key sustainability dimensions; explore available scientific literature references, and; assess potential impacts of sustainability activities. The MSSB reduces the amount of time and effort required to assess the state of sustainability science and engineering research pertaining

  19. Nonregenerative natural resources in a sustainable system of energy supply.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bradshaw, Alex M; Hamacher, Thomas

    2012-03-12

    Following the lead of the European Union in introducing binding measures to promote the use of regenerative energy forms, it is not unreasonable to assume that the global demand for combustible raw materials for energy generation will be reduced considerably in the second half of this century. This will not only have a favourable effect on the CO(2) concentration in the atmosphere, but will also help preserve fossil fuels-important as raw materials in the chemical industry-for future generations. Nevertheless, associated with the concomitant massive shift to regenerative energy forms, there will be a strong demand for other exhaustible raw materials, in particular metals, some of which are already regarded as scarce. After reviewing the debate on mineral depletion between "cornucopians" and "pessimists", we discuss the meaning of mineral "scarcity", particularly in the geochemical sense, and mineral "exhaustion". The expected drastic increase in demand for mineral resources caused by demographic and societal pressures, that is, due to the increase in in-use stock, is emphasised. Whilst not discussing the issue of "strong" versus "weak" sustainability in detail, we conclude that regenerative energy systems-like nearly all resource-consuming systems in our society-do not necessarily satisfy generally accepted sustainability criteria. In this regard, we discuss some current examples, namely, lithium and cobalt for batteries, rare earth-based permanent magnets for wind turbines, cadmium and tellurium for solar cells and copper for electrical power distribution. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  20. EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. M. Alilova

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Aim. The aim is to consider the relationship of philosophy and education; the article also reviews the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD, a global model for a special educational activity. We also discuss the features of the philosophical approach to the issue of sustainable development. Discussion. In research, we use the method of socio-natural approach, a new educational paradigm that combines the theory and concept of training and education within the anthropocentric approach based on humanistic philosophical ideas which laid the basis for understanding the person as the subject of life, history and culture. We analyzed environmental and educational aspects of sustainable development in the current context. In order to address these challenges, philosophy produces new concepts, theories and paradigms. It is necessary to work on people's motivation and values, develop their cooperation skills, teach civic engagement and democratic by action rather than words. Only a highly educated society can generate environmental paradigm and implement the strategy of sustainable development. Conclusions. We recommend transferring research outcomes into practice in schools starting with elementary school, as well as in vocational schools and universities. Clarifying the essence of the concept of education for sustainable development is possible through philosophical understanding of its genesis and ideas.

  1. Seaweeds: an opportunity for wealth and sustainable livelihood for coastal communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rebours, Céline; Marinho-Soriano, Eliane; Zertuche-González, José A; Hayashi, Leila; Vásquez, Julio A; Kradolfer, Paul; Soriano, Gonzalo; Ugarte, Raul; Abreu, Maria Helena; Bay-Larsen, Ingrid; Hovelsrud, Grete; Rødven, Rolf; Robledo, Daniel

    2014-01-01

    The European, Canadian, and Latin American seaweed industries rely on the sustainable harvesting of natural resources. As several countries wish to increase their activity, the harvest should be managed according to integrated and participatory governance regimes to ensure production within a long-term perspective. Development of regulations and directives enabling the sustainable exploitation of natural resources must therefore be brought to the national and international political agenda in order to ensure environmental, social, and economic values in the coastal areas around the world. In Europe, Portugal requires an appraisal of seaweed management plans while Norway and Canada have developed and implemented coastal management plans including well-established and sustainable exploitation of their natural seaweed resources. Whereas, in Latin America, different scenarios of seaweed exploitation can be observed; each country is however in need of long-term and ecosystem-based management plans to ensure that exploitation is sustainable. These plans are required particularly in Peru and Brazil, while Chile has succeeded in establishing a sustainable seaweed-harvesting plan for most of the economically important seaweeds. Furthermore, in both Europe and Latin America, seaweed aquaculture is at its infancy and development will have to overcome numerous challenges at different levels (i.e., technology, biology, policy). Thus, there is a need for regulations and establishment of "best practices" for seaweed harvesting, management, and cultivation. Trained human resources will also be required to provide information and education to the communities involved, to enable seaweed utilization to become a profitable business and provide better income opportunities to coastal communities.

  2. Polution of basic natural resources with hazardous matters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pejanović Ljubo

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper analyzes conceptual guidelines and a multidimensional approach to the thematic of agriculture as a land property with rich and available natural resources, which are characterized by their specifics. Specifics of natural resources are characterized by renewable and non-renewable contents without which life is impossible, and these basic contents are land, air and water. In addition, agrarians and agriculture have natural riches in their possession, out of which food for living creatures on the planet is produced. Natural resources are the contents of agrarians and with every pollution, and thus destruction of natural resources, it damages and destroys sustainability of both natural resources and the sustainability of agriculture with its content of living creatures and plants on which life and survival on this planet depend on. Any pollution, especially from hazardous substances and excessive treatment from the air and ground, causes damage, destruction and loss of life which is contained by living creatures and plant life, a prerequisite for sustainable development and the survival on Earth. The problem and aim of this paper is to point out and prove a phenomenon of the modern world, which poses a threat to the survival of natural resources, and thus life to living things and plant life on Earth. However, the aforementioned phenomenon is not a much known one, it's only known to a shortlist of scientists and theoreticians, while the general public is not aware of the mentioned and doesn't even assume the consequences of the threat.

  3. The road to Sustainable Value: the path-dependent construction of sustainable innovation as sociomaterial practices in the car industry

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Osch, W.; Avital, M.; Thatchenkery, T.; Cooperrider, D.L.; Avital, M.

    2010-01-01

    Sustainable innovation is not only about the design of radical "green" technologies, it is also about generating social and institutional support that complement and reinforce the adoption and diffusion of these technologies at large. Hence, treating the ecologically hazardous nature of the

  4. Armenia's Economic Growth Sustainability

    OpenAIRE

    Hayakawa, Tatsuji

    2015-01-01

    Armenia enjoyed 15 years of uninterrupted high economic growth prior to the global financial crisis in 2009. Investment, particularly in the mining and metallurgy sectors, played a key role as a driver of economic growth. Remittances,mostly from Russia, had an effect in sustaining consumption and boosting construction. Armenia has shown some weaknesses in the external sector, due to demands for natural gas, mineral products, machinery, and equipment. Armenia's exports and FDI suffer from the ...

  5. Nature and causes of land degradation and desertification in Libya ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    African Journal of Biotechnology ... Moreover, environmental and livelihood implications of increasing desertification need to be addressed in order to promote regional economic sustainable ... Key words: Desertification, human impacts, Libya, natural resources, sustainable development, remote sensing, monitoring.

  6. Chasing our tails: psychological, institutional and societal paradoxes in natural resource management, sustainability, and climate change in Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Browne, A L; Bishop, B J

    2011-06-01

    Natural Resource Management (NRM) and Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) have been guiding frameworks in Australia for a number of decades. Recently, NRM and ESD have become central to climate change mitigation. In this paper, we explore the psychological paradoxes that function within climate change settings, with particular attention devoted to the way that research and development reinforces these paradoxes by advocating for participatory forms of inquiry. Paradox emerges in NRM at psychological, institutional, and organisational levels. Paradoxes are also features of different forms of democracy such as neoliberal and participatory democracy. Although NRM, ESD and climate change are often conceptualised as distinct issue domains, these policy areas are fundamentally interconnected in both theory and in practice. This interconnection between these policy and research settings, reflections on paradox, and the experience of incorporating community psychology into the paradoxical settings of NRM and climate change are captured in this paper.

  7. Sustainable development: A HUD perspective

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Goldfarb, E.

    1994-12-31

    Sustainable development is the current term now being used to describe the environmental movement. The term`s popularity can be traced to publication of Our Common Future, the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission). Sustainable development means exactly what is implied; development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Commission). It is another way of conveying the basic premise of {open_quotes}Spaceship Earth{close_quotes}; that our species has been given this planet to live on and we must carefully balance resource utilization if we want to endure more than a few generations, because this is all we`ve got. It is a natural evolution of the conservation and environmental movements into a format that recognizes that environmental issues cannot be viewed in isolation, but must be evaluated in a context of economic development (Powledge). Sustainable development is thus a broad term that encompasses many elements, depending upon the context. Such elements can include: 1 energy, 2 economic development, 3 pollution prevention, 4 biodiversity, 5 historic preservation, 6 social equity, and 7 recycling and solid waste disposal. One of the cornerstones of sustainable development is energy policy, since energy use is perhaps the most defining element of contemporary civilization. In the energy discipline, sustainability can best be paraphrased as living off one`s income as opposed to depleting ones capital. In other words, using solar, wind and other renewables rather than fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are limited and will eventually be depleted, therefore they cannot be considered sustainable. Another element embraced by sustainable development is biodiversity. The biodiversity movement is most sharply distinguished from traditional conservationism for its commitment to the principle of preserving and managing entire ecosystems.

  8. Sustainable development: A HUD perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goldfarb, E.

    1994-01-01

    Sustainable development is the current term now being used to describe the environmental movement. The term's popularity can be traced to publication of Our Common Future, the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission). Sustainable development means exactly what is implied; development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Commission). It is another way of conveying the basic premise of open-quotes Spaceship Earthclose quotes; that our species has been given this planet to live on and we must carefully balance resource utilization if we want to endure more than a few generations, because this is all we've got. It is a natural evolution of the conservation and environmental movements into a format that recognizes that environmental issues cannot be viewed in isolation, but must be evaluated in a context of economic development (Powledge). Sustainable development is thus a broad term that encompasses many elements, depending upon the context. Such elements can include: 1 energy, 2 economic development, 3 pollution prevention, 4 biodiversity, 5 historic preservation, 6 social equity, and 7 recycling and solid waste disposal. One of the cornerstones of sustainable development is energy policy, since energy use is perhaps the most defining element of contemporary civilization. In the energy discipline, sustainability can best be paraphrased as living off one's income as opposed to depleting ones capital. In other words, using solar, wind and other renewables rather than fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are limited and will eventually be depleted, therefore they cannot be considered sustainable. Another element embraced by sustainable development is biodiversity. The biodiversity movement is most sharply distinguished from traditional conservationism for its commitment to the principle of preserving and managing entire ecosystems

  9. Framework of systematic sustainability assessment strategy (FSSAS) for hydroelectric power industry in Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johan, Kartina; Turan, Faiz Mohd

    2017-08-01

    Hydroelectric power is an alternative power resource in Malaysia and always associated with negative impact on environmental, social and economy of the surrounding site. The dispute over environmental, societal and economic issues can be minimised if compliance to sustainability development requirement is included in the project as part of the project premises during planning phase. This paper suggests a framework targeted for decision-makers in charge of implementing the projects to produce hydropower the sustainable way in Malaysian context which can mitigate the risks in social, environment and economy. The framework is strategic in nature and based on project management methodology with objective to provide a ‘common language’ by having a project value as measureable for stakeholders to state their mutual agreement of what a sustainable hydropower project in the context of Malaysia and in line with the United Nations (UN) 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The paper discusses how the proposed systematic sustainability assessment strategy (FSSAS) framework support the call for Malaysia to promote meaningful public participation in ensuring land and natural resource decisions and to address citizens’ interests which is the core idea of Environmental Democracy Index established in 2014. The paper argues that, even though it is at present impossible to define precision status of sustainability development with respect to the nature of the multi stakeholders and the lack of systematic assessment the proposed FSSAS framework can be a valuable tool because it tracks the project value as a quantitative deliverable to determine the status of the journey in sustainable development towards accomplishing the SDG under a consensus in hydropower industry of any scale over time.

  10. The Role of Nuclear Energy in Establishing Sustainable Energy Paths

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bruggink, J.J.C.; Van der Zwaan, B.C.C.

    2001-10-01

    This study juxtaposes the major facts and arguments about nuclear energy and its potential role in establishing sustainable energy paths. The notion of sustainability has a strong normative character and can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Therefore, also the sustainability of energy supply technologies possesses a normative nature. This paper analyses what the major dimensions are that ought to be addressed when nuclear energy technology is compared, in sustainability terms, with its fossil-fuelled and renewable counterparts. It is assessed to what extent energy supply portfolios including nuclear energy are more, or less, sustainable in comparison to those that exclude this technology. It is indicated what this inventory of collected facts and opinions means for both policy and research regarding nuclear energy in the case of the Netherlands. 32 refs

  11. Sustainable values for a livable future

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McCluney, R.

    1995-01-01

    Alternative paths to the future which might produce true sustainability involve comprehensive behavior change, not only by government and business leaders but also by ordinary citizens. Individual and societal behavior is guided to a great extent by the values and beliefs underlying that behavior. A growing body of literature deals with this subject, which is called environmental ethics. From the seminal work of Thomas Berry to conference proceedings and journal articles, examinations of the moral and ethical implications of the need for changing values and behavior can be found in both the religious and secular literature. Central to much of that literature is the concept of envisioning a sustainable future. Developing, promoting, and publicizing those visions will be important in overcoming the natural fears one has of changing basic values and beliefs, thereby enabling open and public discussion of the need of a set of sustainable values for a livable future

  12. Sustainable Biomass Resources for Biogas Production

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Meyer, Ane Katharina Paarup

    The aim of this thesis was to identify and map sustainable biomass resources, which can be utilised for biogas production with minimal negative impacts on the environment, nature and climate. Furthermore, the aim of this thesis was to assess the resource potential and feasibility of utilising...... such biomasses in the biogas sector. Sustainability in the use of biomass feedstock for energy production is of key importance for a stable future food and energy supply, and for the functionality of the Earths ecosystems. A range of biomass resources were assessed in respect to sustainability, availability...... from 39.3-66.9 Mtoe, depending on the availability of the residues. Grass from roadside verges and meadow habitats in Denmark represent two currently unutilised sources. If utilised in the Danish biogas sector, the results showed that the resources represent a net energy potential of 60,000 -122,000 GJ...

  13. Sustainable diets within sustainable food systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meybeck, Alexandre; Gitz, Vincent

    2017-02-01

    Sustainable diets and sustainable food systems are increasingly explored by diverse scientific disciplines. They are also recognised by the international community and called upon to orient action towards the eradication of hunger and malnutrition and the fulfilment of sustainable development goals. The aim of the present paper is to briefly consider some of the links between these two notions in order to facilitate the operationalisation of the concept of sustainable diet. The concept of sustainable diet was defined in 2010 combining two totally different perspectives: a nutrition perspective, focused on individuals, and a global sustainability perspective, in all its dimensions: environmental, economic and social. The nutrition perspective can be easily related to health outcomes. The global sustainability perspective is more difficult to analyse directly. We propose that it be measured as the contribution of a diet to the sustainability of food systems. Such an approach, covering the three dimensions of sustainability, enables identification of interactions and interrelations between food systems and diets. It provides opportunities to find levers of change towards sustainability. Diets are both the results and the drivers of food systems. The drivers of change for those variously involved, consumers and private individuals, are different, and can be triggered by different dimensions (heath, environment, social and cultural). Combining different dimensions and reasons for change can help facilitate the transition to sustainable diets, recognising the food system's specificities. The adoption of sustainable diets can be facilitated and enabled by food systems, and by appropriate policies and incentives.

  14. Searching for Natural Conductive Fibrous Structures via a Green Sustainable Approach Based on Jute Fibers and Silver Nanoparticles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diana P. Ferreira

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper provides new insights regarding jute fibers functionalization with silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs with improved conductivity values and highlights the sustainability of the processes involved. These NPs were applied onto jute fabrics by two different sustainable methods: ultraviolet (UV photoreduction and by using polyethylene glycol (PEG as a reducing agent and stabilizer. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM images demonstrated that the Ag NPs were incorporated on the jute fibers surface by the two different approaches, with sizes ranging from 70 to 100 nm. Diffuse reflectance spectra revealed the plasmon absorption band, corresponding to the formation of metallic Ag NPs, in all samples under study. Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR was used to characterize the obtained samples, demonstrating NPs adsorption to the surface of the fibers. The resistivity value obtained by the two-point probe method of the jute fabric without functionalization is about 1.5 × 107 Ω·m, whereas, after NPs functionalization, it decreased almost 15,000 times, reaching a value of 1.0 × 103 Ω·m. Further research work is being undertaken for improving these values, however, 1000 Ω·m of resistivity (conductivity = 0.001 S/m is already a very reasonable value when compared with those obtained with other developed systems based on natural fibers. In summary, this work shows that the use of very simple methodologies enabled the functionalization of jute fibers with reasonable values of conductivity. This achievement has a huge potential for use in smart textile composites.

  15. Synthetic sustained gene delivery systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agarwal, Ankit; Mallapragada, Surya K

    2008-01-01

    Gene therapy today is hampered by the need of a safe and efficient gene delivery system that can provide a sustained therapeutic effect without cytotoxicity or unwanted immune responses. Bolus gene delivery in solution results in the loss of delivered factors via lymphatic system and may cause undesired effects by the escape of bioactive molecules to distant sites. Controlled gene delivery systems, acting as localized depot of genes, provide an extended sustained release of genes, giving prolonged maintenance of the therapeutic level of encoded proteins. They also limit the DNA degradation in the nuclease rich extra-cellular environment. While attempts have been made to adapt existing controlled drug delivery technologies, more novel approaches are being investigated for controlled gene delivery. DNA encapsulated in nano/micro spheres of polymers have been administered systemically/orally to be taken up by the targeted tissues and provide sustained release once internalized. Alternatively, DNA entrapped in hydrogels or scaffolds have been injected/implanted in tissues/cavities as platforms for gene delivery. The present review examines these different modalities for sustained delivery of viral and non-viral gene-delivery vectors. Design parameters and release mechanisms of different systems made with synthetic or natural polymers are presented along with their prospective applications and opportunities for continuous development.

  16. New developments in recirculating aquaculture systems in Europe: a perspective on environmental sustainability

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Martins, C.I.; Eding, E.H.; Verdegem, M.C.J.; Heinsbroek, L.T.N.; Schneider, O.; Blancheton, J.P.; Roque dÓrbcastel, E.; Verreth, J.A.J.

    2010-01-01

    The dual objective of sustainable aquaculture, i.e., to produce food while sustaining natural resources is achieved only when production systems with a minimum ecological impact are used. Recirculating aquaculture systems (RASs) provide opportunities to reduce water usage and to improve waste

  17. Sustainable cities and energy policies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Capello, R.; Nijkamp, P.; Pepping, G.

    1999-01-01

    This book starts out with the optimistic perspective that modern cities can indeed play a strategic role in the necessary pathway to sustainable development, with particular emphasis on the opportunities offered by local energy and environmental initiatives. Our study aims to demonstrate that an urban sustainability policy has many socio-economic benefits, while it also seeks to identify the critical success and failure factors of sustainable city innovations. After a comprehensive review of various opportunities and experiences, attention is focused particularly on renewable energy resources which may offer new potential for the active involvement of local authorities. The study also highlights major impediments regarding the adoption and implementation of renewable energies, in particular, the development of advanced energy-environmental technology in a world dominated by natural (public) monopolies and/or monopolistic competition elements. In this context both theoretical and empirical elements are discussed, as well as institutional aspects. The theory and methodology is tested by a thorough empirical investigation into local renewable energy initiatives in three European countries, viz. Greece, Italy and The Netherlands. Based on an extensive data base, various statistical models are estimated in order to identify the key elements and major driving forces of sustainable development at the city level. And finally, the study is concluded with a long list of applicable and operational policy guidelines for urban sustainability. These lessons are largely based on meta-analytic comparative studies of the various initiatives investigated. (orig.)

  18. Growth curves and sustained commissioning modelling of renewable energy: Investigating resource constraints for wind energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Davidsson, Simon; Grandell, Leena; Wachtmeister, Henrik; Höök, Mikael

    2014-01-01

    Several recent studies have proposed fast transitions to energy systems based on renewable energy technology. Many of them dismiss potential physical constraints and issues with natural resource supply, and do not consider the growth rates of the individual technologies needed or how the energy systems are to be sustained over longer time frames. A case study is presented modelling potential growth rates of the wind energy required to reach installed capacities proposed in other studies, taking into account the expected service life of wind turbines. A sustained commissioning model is proposed as a theoretical foundation for analysing reasonable growth patterns for technologies that can be sustained in the future. The annual installation and related resource requirements to reach proposed wind capacity are quantified and it is concluded that these factors should be considered when assessing the feasibility, and even the sustainability, of fast energy transitions. Even a sustained commissioning scenario would require significant resource flows, for the transition as well as for sustaining the system, indefinitely. Recent studies that claim there are no potential natural resource barriers or other physical constraints to fast transitions to renewable energy appear inadequate in ruling out these concerns. - Highlights: • Growth rates and service life is important when evaluating energy transitions. • A sustained commissioning model is suggested for analysing renewable energy. • Natural resource requirements for renewable energy are connected to growth rates. • Arguments by recent studies ruling out physical constraints appear inadequate

  19. Sustainable Use of Tepetate Composite in Earthen Structure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. López-Lara

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available One of the best indicators for construction sustainability is the use of earthy local materials which are completely recyclables and savers of energy during their life cycle. Tepetate is an underestimated earth-natural material, vast and economic, used only in a compacted form in backfills for layers of low resistance in pavements and platforms of buildings. This volcanic soil, named in different ways in several countries, is found in the central region of Mexico. Its resistance as compacted material is very low, of the order of 0.08 MPa. In this work, an improved sustainable-tepetate composite, using CaOH, is presented. This research includes the determination of mechanical properties as well as the physicochemical characterization of the sustainable-tepetate composite behavior. It can be concluded that the strength of the proposed composite increases significantly, immediately after treatment and with time. X-Ray Diffraction shows that all the mineralogical phases prevail in the natural tepetate and only a new phase appeared (calcite, which increases with time. This and the reaction of CaOH with clay content are very likely associated with the continuous strength increase of the composite.

  20. A Biomimetic Structural Form: Developing a Paradigm to Attain Vital Sustainability in Tall Architecture

    OpenAIRE

    Osama Al-Sehail

    2017-01-01

    This paper argues for sustainability as a necessity in the evolution of tall architecture. It provides a different mode for dealing with sustainability in tall architecture, taking into consideration the speciality of its typology. To this end, the article develops a Biomimetic Structural Form as a paradigm to attain Vital Sustainability. A Biomimetic Structural Form, which is derived from the amalgamation of biomimicry as an approach for sustainability defining nature as source of knowledge ...

  1. Relay cropping as a sustainable approach: problems and opportunities for sustainable crop production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanveer, Mohsin; Anjum, Shakeel Ahmad; Hussain, Saddam; Cerdà, Artemi; Ashraf, Umair

    2017-03-01

    Climate change, soil degradation, and depletion of natural resources are becoming the most prominent challenges for crop productivity and environmental sustainability in modern agriculture. In the scenario of conventional farming system, limited chances are available to cope with these issues. Relay cropping is a method of multiple cropping where one crop is seeded into standing second crop well before harvesting of second crop. Relay cropping may solve a number of conflicts such as inefficient use of available resources, controversies in sowing time, fertilizer application, and soil degradation. Relay cropping is a complex suite of different resource-efficient technologies, which possesses the capability to improve soil quality, to increase net return, to increase land equivalent ratio, and to control the weeds and pest infestation. The current review emphasized relay cropping as a tool for crop diversification and environmental sustainability with special focus on soil. Briefly, benefits, constraints, and opportunities of relay cropping keeping the goals of higher crop productivity and sustainability have also been discussed in this review. The research and knowledge gap in relay cropping was also highlighted in order to guide the further studies in future.

  2. Landscape Sustainability in a Sonoran Desert City

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chris A. Martin

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to discuss concepts of landscape sustainability in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Phoenix is situated in the greater Salt River Valley of the lower Sonoran Desert in the southwest United States. In this paper I use the ecological frameworks of ecosystem services and resiliency as a metric for understanding landscape sustainability. An assessment of landscape sustainability performance benchmarks were made by surveying research findings of scientists affiliated with the Central Arizona Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research Project (CAP LTER. In Phoenix, present day emphases on cultural, aesthetic, and habitat formation ecosystem services within an arid ecoregion of low natural resilience coupled to a complex matrix of socioeconomic stratification, excessive landscape water use and pruning practices has had the undesired effect of degrading landscape sustainability. This has been measured as mixed patterns of plant diversity and human-altered patterns of carbon regulation, microclimate control, and trophic dynamics. In the future, sustainable residential landscaping in desert cities such as Phoenix may be fostered through use of water-conserving irrigation technologies, oasis-style landscape design motifs, recycling of landscape green waste, and conservative plant pruning strategies.

  3. "Human Nature": Chemical Engineering Students' Ideas about Human Relationships with the Natural World

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldman, Daphne; Assaraf, Orit Ben-Zvi; Shemesh, Julia

    2014-01-01

    While importance of environmental ethics, as a component of sustainable development, in preparing engineers is widely acknowledged, little research has addressed chemical engineers' environmental concerns. This study aimed to address this void by exploring chemical engineering students' values regarding human-nature relationships. The study was…

  4. Sustainable management for the eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berberoglu, Süha

    2003-03-01

    The objective of this article is to propose a program for the integrated coastal zone management that is required to stimulate and guide sustainable development of the Mediterranean coastal zone of Turkey. Improved data collection, quality control, analysis, and data management will provide a firm basis for future scientific understanding of the East Mediterranean coast of Turkey and will support long-term management. Various innovative procedures were proposed for a promising ecosystem-based approach to manage coastal wetlands in the Mediterranean: remote data acquisition with new technologies; environmental quality monitoring program that will provide a baseline for monitoring; linking a Geographic Information System (GIS) with natural resource management decision routines in the context of operational wetlands, fisheries, tourism management system; environmental sensitivity analysis to ensure that permitted developments are environmentally sustainable; and use of natural species to restore the wetlands and coastal dunes and sustain the system processes. The proposed management scheme will benefit the scientific community in the Mediterranean and the management/planning community in Eastern Turkey.

  5. Distributed GIS Systems, Open Specifications and Interoperability: How do They Relate to the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rafael Moreno-Sanchez

    2006-01-01

    The aim of this is paper is to provide a conceptual framework for the session: “The role of web-based Geographic Information Systems in supporting sustainable management.” The concepts of sustainability, sustainable forest management, Web Services, Distributed Geographic Information Systems, interoperability, Open Specifications, and Open Source Software are defined...

  6. Toward an Economic Definition of Sustainable Yield for Coastal Aquifers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jenson, J. W.; Habana, N. C.; Lander, M.

    2016-12-01

    The concept of aquifer sustainable yield has long been criticized, debated, and even disparaged among groundwater hydrologists, but policy-makers and professional water resource managers inevitably ask them for unequivocal answers to such questions as "What is the absolute maximum volume of water that could be sustainably withdrawn from this aquifer?" We submit that it is therefore incumbent upon hydrologists to develop and offer valid practical definitions of sustainable yield that can be usefully applied to given conditions and types of aquifers. In coastal aquifers, water quality—in terms of salinity—is affected by changes in the natural water budget and the volume rate of artificial extraction. In principle, one can identify a family of assay curves for a given aquifer, showing the specific relationships between the quantity and quality of the water extracted under given conditions of recharge. The concept of the assay curve, borrowed from the literature of natural-resource extraction economics, has to our knowledge not yet found its way into the literature of applied hydrology. The relationships between recharge, extraction, and water quality that define the assay curve can be determined empirically from sufficient observations of groundwater response to recharge and extraction and can be estimated from models that have been reliably history-matched ("calibrated") to such data. We thus propose a working definition of sustainable yield for coastal aquifers in terms of the capacity that ultimately could be achieved by an ideal production system, given what is known or can be assumed about the natural limiting conditions. Accordingly, we also offer an approach for defining an ideal production system for a given aquifer, and demonstrate how observational data and/or modeling results can be used to develop assay curves of quality vs. quantity extracted, which can serve as reliable predictive tools for engineers, managers, regulators, and policy

  7. Water Quality and Sustainable Environmental Health

    Science.gov (United States)

    Setegn, S. G.

    2014-12-01

    Lack of adequate safe water, the pollution of the aquatic environment and the mismanagement of resources are major causes of ill-health and mortality, particularly in the developing countries. In order to accommodate more growth, sustainable fresh water resource management will need to be included in future development plans. One of the major environmental issues of concern to policy-makers is the increased vulnerability of ground water quality. The main challenge for the sustainability of water resources is the control of water pollution. To understand the sustainability of the water resources, one needs to understand the impact of future land use and climate changes on the natural resources. Providing safe water and basic sanitation to meet the Millennium Development Goals will require substantial economic resources, sustainable technological solutions and courageous political will. A balanced approach to water resources exploitation for development, on the one hand, and controls for the protection of health, on the other, is required if the benefits of both are to be realized without avoidable detrimental effects manifesting themselves. Meeting the millennium development goals for water and sanitation in the next decade will require substantial economic resources, sustainable technological solutions and courageous political will. In addition to providing "improved" water and "basic" sanitation services, we must ensure that these services provide: safe drinking water, adequate quantities of water for health, hygiene, agriculture and development and sustainable sanitation approaches to protect health and the environment.

  8. Digital Earth – A sustainable Earth

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mahavir

    2014-01-01

    All life, particularly human, cannot be sustainable, unless complimented with shelter, poverty reduction, provision of basic infrastructure and services, equal opportunities and social justice. Yet, in the context of cities, it is believed that they can accommodate more and more people, endlessly, regardless to their carrying capacity and increasing ecological footprint. The 'inclusion', for bringing more and more people in the purview of development is often limited to social and economic inclusion rather than spatial and ecological inclusion. Economic investment decisions are also not always supported with spatial planning decisions. Most planning for a sustainable Earth, be at a level of rural settlement, city, region, national or Global, fail on the capacity and capability fronts. In India, for example, out of some 8,000 towns and cities, Master Plans exist for only about 1,800. A chapter on sustainability or environment is neither statutorily compulsory nor a norm for these Master Plans. Geospatial technologies including Remote Sensing, GIS, Indian National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), Indian National Urban Information Systems (NUIS), Indian Environmental Information System (ENVIS), and Indian National GIS (NGIS), etc. have potential to map, analyse, visualize and take sustainable developmental decisions based on participatory social, economic and social inclusion. Sustainable Earth, at all scales, is a logical and natural outcome of a digitally mapped, conceived and planned Earth. Digital Earth, in fact, itself offers a platform to dovetail the ecological, social and economic considerations in transforming it into a sustainable Earth

  9. The sustainable development thematic in the research groups

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Cristina Comunian Ferraz

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available The technological innovation brought for the debate the question of the sustainable technological development. The article presents an entirety of theoretical reflections on the science, technology and sustainable development themes and to aim the contributions of the Information Science, while interdisciplinary science, with respect to the understanding of the sustainable development. With basis in this reference it was carried through the investigation of descriptive exploratory nature with quanti-qualitative boarding, having as main objective to identify the presence of the sustainable development thematic in research groups of the UFSCar registered in cadastre in the National Directory of Research Groups of the CNPq. The results had shown that the sustainable development thematic is present in eleven researchgroups of the UFSCar distributed in different knowledge areas. Comparing the data gotten with the research groups of the country that had participated of 2004 Census of the National Directory of Research Groups of the CNPq it was verified that it has similarity between both the data. In accordance with scientific literature, confirms that the sustainable development thematic is interdisciplinar and that the knowledge production of the research groups is result to know articulated in some of the knowledge areas.

  10. Urban water sustainability: framework and application

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wu Yang

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Urban areas such as megacities (those with populations greater than 10 million are hotspots of global water use and thus face intense water management challenges. Urban areas are influenced by local interactions between human and natural systems and interact with distant systems through flows of water, food, energy, people, information, and capital. However, analyses of water sustainability and the management of water flows in urban areas are often fragmented. There is a strong need to apply integrated frameworks to systematically analyze urban water dynamics and factors that influence these dynamics. We apply the framework of telecoupling (socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances to analyze urban water issues, using Beijing as a demonstration megacity. Beijing exemplifies the global water sustainability challenge for urban settings. Like many other cities, Beijing has experienced drastic reductions in quantity and quality of both surface water and groundwater over the past several decades; it relies on the import of real and virtual water from sending systems to meet its demand for clean water, and releases polluted water to other systems (spillover systems. The integrative framework we present demonstrates the importance of considering socioeconomic and environmental interactions across telecoupled human and natural systems, which include not only Beijing (the water-receiving system but also water-sending systems and spillover systems. This framework helps integrate important components of local and distant human-nature interactions and incorporates a wide range of local couplings and telecouplings that affect water dynamics, which in turn generate significant socioeconomic and environmental consequences, including feedback effects. The application of the framework to Beijing reveals many research gaps and management needs. We also provide a foundation to apply the telecoupling framework to better understand and manage water

  11. Proceedings from the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Workshop

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Halsnæs, Kirsten; Olhoff, Anne

    national examples of sustainable development policies with large impacts on climate change were given at the workshop. These include: 1) The ethanol programme of Brazil. 2) Energy efficiency programmes in China that are part of general economic development strategies. 3) Development of natural gas supply......The specific objectives of the workshop were: 1) To consider how longer-term development priorities link with climate change concerns. 2) To identify options for meeting developing countries needs and priorities while contributing to sustainable development both locally and globally. 3) To discuss...... possible longer term action at domestic and international levels by countries to further the sustainable development and climate change discussion. First of all, it was recognised that there has been a strong support, endorsement, and agreement among all participants on using sustainable development...

  12. Incorporating attitudinal parameter in assessing sustainability of Malaysia manufacturing industry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lanang, Wan Nurul Syahirah Wan; Turan, Faiz Mohd; Johan, Kartina

    2018-04-01

    Numerous companies are accepting sustainability as an organizational peremptory. There is, however, little convergence on how organizations become sustainable. The previous study suggests that a paradigm shift is necessary to incorporate more sustainable ways of thinking, while others advocate that sustainability requires only moderate behavioural changes as in attitude. In addition, it is also suggesting that sustainability develops most effectively when a singular view of sustainability is applied throughout the company; others contend that differentiated views of sustainability emerge within the various subcultures of an organization. The aim of this paper is to analyse the aftermath of considering attitudinal parameter into the initial data, portraying the true nature of personality during the survey. The research presented was carried out with employees from various manufacturing companies with different branches of knowledge and attitude. Survey methodology was employed by building a questionnaire combining Likert-type items, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Green Project Management (GPM) P5 Integration and multiple-option items. The results allow identifying the knowledges and attitudes of the employees in Malaysia context, contributing relevant data in regard to future engagement relating to sustainability and attitudinal parameter.

  13. Sustainable hydrogen production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Block, D.L.; Linkous, C.; Muradov, N.

    1996-01-01

    This report describes the Sustainable Hydrogen Production research conducted at the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) for the past year. The report presents the work done on the following four tasks: Task 1--production of hydrogen by photovoltaic-powered electrolysis; Task 2--solar photocatalytic hydrogen production from water using a dual-bed photosystem; Task 3--development of solid electrolytes for water electrolysis at intermediate temperatures; and Task 4--production of hydrogen by thermocatalytic cracking of natural gas. For each task, this report presents a summary, introduction/description of project, and results.

  14. 1000 years of sustainable grazing in Nordic conditions?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brandt, Jesper

    landscapes at different spatial levels. Information on much of this sort of regulation has however been lost through modern times, tended to prefer modern (nature) scientific methods primarily developed as general (meaning not spatially contextual) recommendations for raising productivity. During the later...... years this modern tradition has also been preferred by investigations to find solutions for non-sustainable types of land use in grazing systems. However, much sustainability-relevant wisdom has been accumulated in historical grazing-systems that should be included in the repertoire of knowledge...

  15. Collaborative business modeling for systemic and sustainability innovations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rohrbeck, René; Konnertz, L.; Knab, S.

    2013-01-01

    Sustainability innovations are characterized by a systemic nature, and require that multiple organizations act in an orchestrated fashion. To jointly identify opportunities and plan sustainability innovations, new methods and approaches are needed. In this article we describe a case study where 8...... firms have collaborated to envision and create new business models in the energy industry. After describing this collaborative business modelling (CBM) approach, we discuss its strengths and limitations and compare it to two alternative methods of strategy and innovation planning: scenario technique...

  16. THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT – A GREEN INVESTMENT ARGUMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MAFTEI DANIEL

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Man has always tried to model nature since ancient times, but at the same time, he had to follow certainrules for living in harmony with it and do not affect its renewal cycle. But, beginning with the industrial revolution thatchanged worrying, man has arrogated himself the right to control nature and use its resources for its own interest.From these causes the mankind is in a real ecological crisis. This article aims to analyze this issue from a historicalperspective by arguing that the sustainable development offers true solutions to the problems posed by our commonfuture. Furthermore, sustainable development is the starting point for the development of green energy infrastructureinvestments. The methods used for analysis are the historical study and his configuration on the current events, theanalysis, the forecasts based on the concrete dates, international trends and on phenomena and events.

  17. Sustainable development and energy resources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Steeg, H.

    2000-01-01

    (a) The paper describes the substance and content of sustainability as well as the elements, which determine the objective. Sustainability is high on national and international political agendas. The objective is of a long term nature. The focus of the paper is on hydrocarbon emissions (CO 2 ); (b) International approaches and policies are addressed such as the Climate change convention and the Kyoto protocol. The burden for change on the energy sector to achieve sustainability is very large in particular for OECD countries and those of central and Eastern Europe. Scepticism is expresses whether the goals of the protocol and be reached within the foreseen timeframe although governments and industry are active in improving sustainability; (c) Future Trends of demand and supply examines briefly the growth in primary energy demand as well as the reserve situation for oil, gas and coal. Renewable energy resources are also assessed in regard to their future potential, which is not sufficient to replace hydrocarbons soon. Nuclear power although not emitting CO 2 is faced with grave acceptability reactions. Nevertheless sustainability is not threatened by lack of resources; (d) Energy efficiency and new technologies are examined vis-a-vis their contribution to sustainability as well as a warning to overestimate soon results for market penetration; (e) The impact of liberalization of energy sectors play an important role. The message is not to revert back to command and control economies but rather use the driving force of competition. It does not mean to renounce government energy policies but to change their radius to more market oriented approaches; (f) Conclusions centre on the plea that all options should be available without emotional and politicized prejudices. (author)

  18. Sustainable development and energy resources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Steeg, H

    2002-01-01

    (a) The paper describes the substance and content of sustainability as well as the elements, which determine the objective. Sustainability is high on national and international political agendas. The objective is of a long term nature. The focus of the paper is on hydrocarbon emissions (CO 2 ); (b) International approaches and policies are addressed such as the climate change convention and the Kyoto protocol. The burden for change on the energy sector to achieve sustainability is very large in particular for OECD countries and those of central and Eastern Europe. Scepticism is expresses whether the goals of the protocol and be reached within the foreseen timeframe although governments and industry are active in improving sustainability; (c) Future trends of demand and supply examines briefly the growth in primary energy demand as well as the reserve situation for oil, gas and coal. Renewable energy resources are also assessed in regard to their future potential, which is not sufficient to replace hydrocarbons soon. Nuclear power although not emitting CO 2 is faced with grave acceptability reactions. Nevertheless sustainability is not threatened by lack of resources; (d) Energy efficiency and new technologies are examined vis-a-vis their contribution to sustainability as well as a warning to overestimate soon results for market penetration; (e) The impact of liberalization of energy sectors play an important role. The message is not to revert back to command and control economies but rather use the driving force of competition. It does not mean to renounce government energy policies but to change their radius to more market oriented approaches; (f) Conclusions centre on the plea that all options should be available without emotional and politicized prejudices. (author)

  19. Unconscious aspects of sustainability in modern and postmodern religious architecture in Poland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gil-Mastalerczyk Joanna

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The emergence in recent decades of the idea of sustainability and sustainable development significantly affected the innovative approach to architectural design and urban planning. The article presents contemporary examples of the Polish works of sacred architecture and urban planning, which prove the unconscious use and incorporation of the concept of the architectural values of the environment, including climate, solar energy and other natural elements such as landform, structure or green water. The analysis of the contemporary examples of architecture, realized in the second half of the twentieth century, confirms that such actions are taken. The search for a friendly urban space combines the comfort of living with the comfort of the natural environment. The contemporary objects and sacral complexes testify to integrated planning with nature. The system of architectural and urban planning objectives is clearly reflected in the functioning of thecity and how to organize the use of space, including an attempt to rebuild a sustainable relationship between the infrastructure and the natural environment. When designing the contemporary forms, sacred has become very important in addition to the historical past, the identity of individual urban structures, at the same time, maintaining the high quality of the environment. Projecting of harmony with the local climate and the use of natural conditions in urban planning.

  20. Technological Innovation – A Route Towards Sustainability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gráinne Kavanagh

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs  is constantly challenged on today’s dynamic operating environment. Evolving regulatory trends, difficult economic conditions, and diminishing natural resources, pose serious questions for all players across the food system. Technological innovation, as a means of ensuring future sustainability in the same in the face of such challenges, has been the focus of significant government investment in Ireland. This paper, aims to facilitate a greater understanding of the motivations and barriers influencing the decision by food SMEs to invest in technological innovation emanating from research conducted in publicly‐funded research institutes.