Research on sustainable development for environmental management

Environmental Science and Pollution Research -     

Materials and sustainable development

Environmental Science and Pollution Research -     

Why bees are critical for achieving sustainable development

Reductions in global bee populations are threatening the pollination benefits to both the planet and people. Whilst the contribution of bee pollination in promoting sustainable development goals through food security and biodiversity is widely acknowledged, a range of other benefits provided by bees has yet to be fully recognised. We explore the contributions of bees towards achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our insights suggest that bees potentially contribute towards 15 of the 17 SDGs and a minimum of 30 SDG targets. We identify common themes in which bees play an essential role, and suggest that improved understanding of bee contributions to sustainable development is crucial for ensuring viable bee systems.     

Transnational multistakeholder partnerships for sustainable development: Conditions for success

This perspective discusses nine conditions for enhancing the performance of multistakeholder partnerships for sustainable development. Such partnerships have become mainstream implementation mechanisms for attaining international sustainable development goals and are also frequently used in other adjacent policy domains such as climate change, health and biodiversity. While multistakeholder arrangements are widely perceived as a positive contribution to addressing global change, few studies have systematically evaluated the existing evidence for their positive performance. This poses an urgent and important challenge for researchers and practitioners to understand and improve the effectiveness of partnerships, in particular since their popularity increases despite their past track record. The recommendations presented are based on own research, a literature survey and discussions with a large number or international Civil Society Organizations at two occasions during 2014. This article proceeds as follows: first, we define multistakeholder partnerships, outline their rational and summarize available assessments on partnership success; second, we provide a set of concrete recommendations based on lessons-learned from over 10 years of scholarship; and third, we conclude with some reflections on the future of multistakeholder governance for sustainability.     

Energy and environment as the foundations for sustainable development

Environmental Science and Pollution Research -     

Environmental PCB forensics: processes and issues

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - PCB forensic science is the process of identifying the source(s) of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at a site in the context of a legal proceeding to...     

Economic valuation for sustainable development in the Swedish coastal zone

The Swedish coastal zone is a scene of conflicting interests about various goods and services provided by nature. Open-access conditions and the public nature of many services increase the difficulty in resolving these conflicts. "Sustainability" is a vague but widely accepted guideline for finding reasonable trade-offs between different interests. The UN view of sustainable development suggests that coastal zone management should aim at a sustainable ecological, economic, and social-cultural development. Looking closer at economic sustainability, it is observed that economic analyses about whether changes in society imply a gain or a loss should take into account the economic value of the environment. Methods used for making such economic valuation in the context of the Swedish coastal zone are briefly reviewed. It is noted that the property rights context matters for the results of a valuation study. This general background is followed by a concise presentation of the design and results of four valuation studies on Swedish coastal zone issues. One study is on the economic value of an improved bathing water quality in the Stockholm archipelago. The other studies are a travel cost study about the economic value of improved recreational fisheries in the Stockholm archipelago, a replacement cost study on the value of restoring habitats for sea trout, and a choice experiment study on the economic value of improved water quality along the Swedish westcoast.     

Understanding regional metabolism for a sustainable development of urban systems

Cities are the most complex forms of settlements which man has built in the course of his cultural development. Their “metabolism” is connected with the world economy and is run mainly by fossil energy carriers. Up to now there are no validated models for the evaluation of a sustainable development of urban regions. The guidelines for a “sustainable development” suggest the reduction of resource consumption. The article is concerned with the problem of how the “sustainable-development concept” can be transformed from a global to a regional scale. In urban settlements the strategy of final storage should be applied. By this, the subsystem waste management can be transformed within 10 to 15 years to a “sustainable status”. With regard to the system “agronomy”, the article concludes that agriculture in urban systems should focus on food production instead of promoting reduction of food production in favour of energy plants, which is not a suitable strategy. The main problems are the energy carriers. Transformation to a “sustainble status” is only possible by a reconstruction of the urban system, i.e. of buildings and the transportation network. The rate determining step in achieving such a status is the change in the fabric of buildings and in the type of transportation networks. The reconstruction of an urban system needs, mainly for economical reasons, a time period of two generations.     

Environmental issues and management strategies for waste electronic and electrical equipment

Issues surrounding the impact and management of discarded or waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) have received increasing attention in recent years. This attention stems from the growing quantity and diversity of electronic and electrical equipment (EEE) used by modern society, the increasingly rapid turnover of EEE with the accompanying burden on the waste stream, and the occurrence of toxic chemicals in many EEE components that can pose a risk to human and environmental health if improperly managed. In addition, public awareness of the WEEE or "e-waste" dilemma has grown in light of popular press features on events such as the transition to digital television and the exportation of WEEE from the United States and other developed countries to Africa, China, and India, where WEEE has often not been managed in a safe manner (e.g., processed with proper safety precautions, disposed of in a sanitary landfill, combusted with proper air quality procedures). This paper critically reviews current published information on the subject of WEEE. The definition, magnitude, and characteristics of this waste stream are summarized, including a detailed review of the chemicals of concern associated with different components and how this has changed and continues to evolve over time. Current and evolving management practices are described (e.g., reuse, recycling, incineration, landfilling). This review discusses the role of regulation and policies developed by governments, institutions, and product manufacturers and how these initiatives are shaping current and future management practices.     

The impact of clean development mechanism in achieving sustainable development

The flexible mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, the clean development mechanism (CDM), should fulfil a twin objective: cost-effective greenhouse gas mitigation and enhancement of sustainable development in developing countries. As most host CDM countries have not established the proper institutional capacity to approve CDM projects and, at the same time, are prerogative to define sustainable development criteria for CDM projects, there is a clear need for a single set of guidelines or one evaluation system that accounts both climate and sustainable development considerations in the approval process of CDM projects. This paper proposes a set of sustainability criteria and indicators for CDM projects screening, reflecting the environmental, social, economic and technological dimension of sustainable development. Sufficient attention has been paid to determine globally relevant criteria and indicators. Priority has been given to energy sector CDM projects.     

可持续发展的"零排放"生态城市模式初探

20世纪90年代初,联合国大学提出"零排放"概念,将可持续发展理论进一步深化.本文在研究循环经济、"零排放"农业、"零排放"工业的基础上,对"零排放"概念进行扩展,首次提出"零排放"生态城市模式的构想,这是一种有利于环境、资源与经济协调发展的绿色生活、工作、生产和消费方式.     

The institutional dimension of urban sustainable development

Sustainable urban development consists of the intentional construction of a dynamic balance between the different logics of the private, public, social (or civil) and natural economic systems, through new organizational rules. These are the institutions. For a co-evolution of the four systems, they should not only ensure the conservation of natural and man-made capital, but also produce human and social capital. The production of social capital is the crucial issue for the sustainable development of cities without this form of capital, any strategy of institutional techno-modernisation (either decentralised or centralised) is bound to fail.     

基于生态足迹模型的浙江省可持续发展研究

基于废弃物处理技术与土地面积之间的关系,对Wackernagel等提出的生态足迹模型中废弃物账户的核算方法作了补充,并以浙江省为实例,分析了2003年浙江省可持续发展状况.结果表明,2003年浙江省人均生态足迹为1.70 hm2,人均生态承载力为0.42 hm2,人均生态赤字为1.28 hm2,生态需求与供给之间存在一定差距.     

Urban densities, local policies and sustainable development

This paper reports on a research project investigating the relationship between travel behaviour and residential densities. The specific focus is on the question of local authority attitudes to raising density standards as current policy suggests they should be doing. The results of a survey of English district councils are presented. The survey tries to identify the degree to which density standards have been changed in response to policy. The results suggest widespread resistance to the raising of standards, implying that the urban compaction agenda is being undermined. The paper finishes with thoughts on the reasons for this resistance.     

Efficient and sustainable environmental management as a means of addressing current pollution issues

Environmental Science and Pollution Research -