Urban land use,mobility and theory of science: exploring the potential for critical realism in empirical research

Academic discussion where the adequacy of positions within theory of science is illustrated by means of examples from empirical research studies seems to be an area of neglect. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to such a debate, using examples from investigations into the relationship between urban structure and travel behaviour. The main research question of these investigations was whether, and to what extent, urban structural conditions are influencing residents' transportation activity. In other words, is there a causal relationship between urban structure and travel behaviour? Furthermore, we asked whether results from studies of the relationship between land use and transport can provide a basis for predictions about the likely consequences of alternative land-use strategies. The methodology and empirical findings of the studies are discussed in the light of the theory of science position labelled ‘critical realism’, in an attempt to relate theory of science to empirical research, but also in order to contribute to the discussion of the usefulness of this specific approach. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Elemental contaminants in groundwater: A study of trace metals from residential area in the vicinity of an industrial area in Lagos, Nigeria

Groundwater (well water) from a residential area within the vicinity of an industrial estate in Lagos, Nigeria were sampled and analysed by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy for their heavy metals content. This was with a view of assessing the quality of the water, which was being used for domestic activities, especially, drinking usually without treatment. Total trace metal determination by mineral acid digestion of water samples was applied. This method proved to be better than an extractive concentration technique in the quality assurance protocols with the recovery range being 90.7 ± 0.006–97.6 ± 0.003%. Mean concentration of trace metals in water samples ranged from Fe: 0.05–0.47 mg l⁻¹; Al: 0.1–1.54 mg l⁻¹; Cu: 0.14–1.39 mg l⁻¹; Zn: 0.04–0.43 mg l⁻¹; Cd: trace–0.02 mg l⁻¹; Pb: trace–0.03 mg l⁻¹, Mn: 0.01–0.18 mg l⁻¹ and Ni: 0.02–0.11 mg l⁻¹. Physical parameters of water samples examined were within the drinking water safety limits except for conductivity. Results generally indicate the presence of heavy metal constituents in groundwater samples. Detection of metals such as cadmium and lead which have serious health implications above WHO and USEPA limits in drinking water gives cause for concern.     

A longitudinal study of the links between Local Air Quality Management and Local Transport Planning policy processes in England

The second round of the Local Transport Plan (LTP2) process in England presents unique challenges and opportunities for integrating Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) within current transport planning policy. Using content analysis of LTP2 documents from nine English authorities, and results from a questionnaire survey of local government officers undertaken in late 2007, this paper charts the changes in the integration of air quality management within the transport planning process since 1997. While substantial improvements in policy integration were observed within the selected case studies, the paper demonstrates that such improvements are often constrained by institutional complexities that create implementation gaps between national objectives and local decision-making outcomes.     

Balancing environmental and industry sustainability: A case study of the US gold mining industry

Mandatory insurance requirements and/or mitigation fees (royalties) for mining companies may help reduce environmental risk exposure for the federal government. Mining is examined since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Toxic Release Inventory reveals that this sector produces more hazardous waste than any other industrial sector. Although uncommon, environmental expense can exceed hundreds of millions of dollars per development. Of particular concern is the potential for mines to become unfunded Superfund sites. Monte Carlo simulation of risk exposure is used to establish a plausible range of unfunded federal liabilities associated with cyanide-leach gold mining. A model is developed to assess these costs and their impact on both the federal budget and corporate profitability (i.e., industry sustainability), particularly if such costs are borne by offending firms.     

Dutch disease and policy adjustments to the oil boom: A comparative study of Indonesia and Mexico

Dutch disease and, more recently, resource curse thesis have been critical issues for development of resource abundant economies. This paper attempts a comparison between Indonesia and Mexico in their policy adjustments to the oil boom with special reference to the Dutch disease. There exists a striking contrast, especially in their fiscal, foreign borrowing, and exchange rate policies, and confirms the conventional understanding that a booming government should be conservative, as was the case in Indonesia, in its macroeconomic management to avoid the Dutch disease. Equally significant, investment use of oil revenues to strengthen the tradable sector is another factor responsible for Indonesian success. Mexico provides a clear-cut example of the resource curse thesis, but Indonesia is an exception.     

Disruption to place attachment and the protection of restorative environments: A wind energy case study

Deepening understanding of public responses to large-scale renewable energy projects is of academic and practical importance, given policies to lessen fossil fuel use in many countries. Although the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) concept is commonly used to explain public opposition, the concept has been extensively critiqued. This study applies an alternative approach based upon the notion of disruption to place attachment, and the theory of social representations, with a focus upon the symbolic meanings associated with a proposed project and the places affected by it. Empirical data is provided from a case study of a proposed 750 MW offshore wind farm in North Wales, using group discussions and questionnaires distributed to local residents in two coastal towns (n = 488). Results indicate significant differences between each town's residents in their responses to the project, and how opposition arises from nature/industry symbolic contradictions: between a place represented in terms of scenic beauty that provides a restorative environment for residents and visitors, and a wind farm that will industrialise the area and ‘fence’ in the bay. In one of the towns, the data suggests that contradiction between project and place was experienced as a threat to identity for those with strong place attachment, leading to negative attitudes and oppositional behaviour. Levels of trust in key actors moderated the relation between place attachment and negative attitudes to the wind farm. The results provide further evidence of the role of place attachment in shaping so-called ‘NIMBY’ responses to development proposals, and challenge the assumption that offshore wind farms will prove less controversial than those onshore.     

China's small coal mine policy in the 2000s: A case study of trusteeship and consolidation

China has been trying to improve the safety and environmental performances of small coal mines (SCMs) in 2000s through measures of trusteeship and consolidation. The question whether such policy and practice can sustain small scale mining is interesting academically and important practically for China and the world. This paper finds that the Chinese SCM policy has been switched from encouragement to restriction for legal SCMs and from privatization to nationalization in some provinces in the past 10 years. Legal SCMs face pressure to be expanded continuously and to be absorbed or consolidated by large coal mines, which often are state owned. Unexpectedly, financial resources may not be a big constraint nowadays due to availability of private equity investment resources. The paper argues that both the trusteeship and consolidation approaches may only be able to sustain SCMs in the short run. A more sustainable measure is to establish a stable, transparent and inclusive legal and fiscal framework. This paper concludes that those trusteeship approaches may be applicable to restructuring small scale mines in other countries; however, the consolidation practice in China's is unique and thus may not be applicable to others.     

Predicting the economic and demographic impacts of long distance commuting in the resources sector: A Surat basin case study

Predicting the economic and demographic impacts of resource development on regional areas is difficult to assess because of limited availability of analysis, difficulties of predicting where workforce are likely to be based, and different impacts on communities because of variations in size and economic structures. In this study modelling has been employed to identify future employment and demographic impacts of future resource developments on communities in the Surat Basin in southern Queensland, Australia. The analysis summarises potential employment increases over multiple projects and uses multipliers from Input–Output models to assess likely impacts by local government area when future workforce might commute to or live locally in the region. The results demonstrate that recent moves to commuting workforces limit the economic impacts on local and regional communities in complex ways.     

Contrasting community and corporate perceptions of sustainability: A case study within the platinum mining region of South Africa

The concept of sustainable development is debatable within the mining context as the fact that mineral resources are non-renewable makes mining inherently unsustainable. The need for a realistic definition of sustainability that can be applied to mining is important, in light of claims by the industry that sustainable development principles underpin aspects of their operations. Furthermore, the socio-economic upliftment that should logically follow the implementation of these principles is not visible in many mining areas. Within the theoretical frameworks of intermediate sustainability, our study aimed to determine the level of sustainability that is appropriate for the mining context. The evaluation of community perspectives within the Rustenburg platinum region in South Africa as a case study, based on qualitative information derived from structured questionnaires and informal interviews brings further clarity. We found out that the environmental and social costs associated with mining were high, while economic benefits to surrounding communities were low. The perceptions of community and corporations were found to contrast sharply: the reality experienced by community members fell well short of the optimistic scenarios presented in the corporate social responsibility reports of the mining companies, which has implications for the mining industry in the area. The Rustenburg region is typical of mining areas, more especially the developing world, and application of a realistic sustainable development concept here can help the mining industry elsewhere to move its operations onto a genuinely more sustainable path.     

Incorporation of recycling flows into economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis: A case study for the Czech Republic

Economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis (EW-MFA) is considered a convenient tool for monitoring the vast range of issues related to the consumption of materials. As an increase in recycling is considered a crucial way of decreasing environmental pressures from this consumption, it makes sense to develop an indicator based on EW-MFA which would incorporate recycling flows. A prominent example of such an indicator is the cyclical use rate, which was developed by the Japanese Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society.We calculated this indicator for the Czech Republic for 2002–2011 and proved that it can also be calculated for countries other than Japan, even though we encountered some unclear methodological issues related to specific features of the Czech waste management system. We further developed two modifications of the indicator taking into consideration that one purpose of the cyclical use rate is to express the ratio of consumption of secondary (recycled) materials and primary raw materials. We discussed these modifications and showed that overall cyclical use rate in the Czech Republic lags behind Japan both in terms of absolute value and trend development, although the indicator is higher for biomass in the Czech Republic. We also showed that this unfavorable evaluation is in contradiction with some classic waste indicators, such as treatment of waste by main treatment methods which is favorably evaluated in the Czech Republic. We concluded that it would be advisable to analyze measures for increasing recycling rates introduced by Japan and assess their possible transposition into the Czech Republic's institutional and legal framework for waste management.     

Stuck between the historic and modern China: A case study of children’s space in a hutong community

Physically and psychologically, children demand special-purpose space for activities. With the fast urbanization and population growth in modern China, the conflict between the needs for economic development and human-friendly environment becomes increasingly prominent. The study adopts an in-depth ethnographic research method and applies the research framework of Sudeshna Chatterjee (2005) to investigate children’s environmental friendliness of a hutong community in Beijing. The study investigated spatial preferences of those children and the characteristics and affordance of their space. This study suggests that different emotional dimensions demand different spatial attributes, which are lacking in the hutong community. The results show that in China’s historical residential areas, children’s environmental and spatial needs remain unfulfilled. The researchers suggest that improving specific environmental affordance could help enhance the overall child-friendliness.     

Using LCA to evaluate impacts and resources conservation potential of composting: A case study of the Asti District in Italy

Separate collection of municipal solid waste has overcome the 50% threshold in the Asti District in northern Italy, nearly one-third being composed of household and green organic waste. In order to address present and future solutions, it becomes therefore fundamental to assess the environmental performances of the current management of organic waste from separate collection. A from-gate-to-cradle life cycle assessment (LCA) model has been developed by expanding system boundaries, in order to carry out the assessment in the context of the whole waste management streamline. The environmental performances of an existing aerobic plant were made available, based on field measured data, by paying attention to the role and contribution of waste management subsystems. The need for actual and reliable data on materials and energy input, as well as gross and net gains from materials recovery, including benefits arising from use of compost in farming activities, was probably the major drawback that had to be faced. The study integrated the findings of different investigations from the literature with field measured data in order to obtain a more comprehensive framework representative of the area under study. The results may help public administrators to better understand the suitability of using LCA tools when dealing with solid waste management strategies.     

AI-based runoff simulation based on remote sensing observations: A case study of two river basins in the United States and Canada

Data-driven techniques are used extensively for hydrologic time-series prediction. We created various data-driven models (DDMs) based on machine learning: long short-term memory (LSTM), support vector regression (SVR), extreme learning machines, and an artificial neural network with backpropagation, to define the optimal approach to predicting streamflow time series in the Carson River (California, USA) and Montmorency (Canada) catchments. The moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow-coverage dataset was applied to improve the streamflow estimate. In addition to the DDMs, the conceptual snowmelt runoff model was applied to simulate and forecast daily streamflow. The four main predictor variables, namely snow-coverage (S-C), precipitation (P), maximum temperature (T_max), and minimum temperature (T_min), and their corresponding values for each river basin, were obtained from National Climatic Data Center and National Snow and Ice Data Center to develop the model. The most relevant predictor variable was chosen using the support vector machine-recursive feature elimination feature selection approach. The results show that incorporating the MODIS snow-coverage dataset improves the models' prediction accuracies in the snowmelt-dominated basin. SVR and LSTM exhibited the best performances (root mean square error = 8.63 and 9.80) using monthly and daily snowmelt time series, respectively. In summary, machine learning is a reliable method to forecast runoff as it can be employed in global climate forecasts that require high-volume data processing.     

Resource scarcity,energy use and environmental impact: A case study of the New Bedford,Massachusetts, USA,fisheries

The commercial fishing fleet in New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA, harvests seafood on George’s Bank, home of one of the nation’s most productive fisheries. We calculated the energy return on investment (EROI) and carbon intensity of protein harvest in the New Bedford fisheries from 1968 to 1988. EROI is the ratio of the energy content of the edible fish protein harvested to the quantity of fossil fuel energy used directly in the harvesting process. Carbon intensity is the quantity of carbon dioxide (CO₂) released (from the burning of fossil fuels) per calorie of edible fish protein harvested. The results show that the EROI of protein harvest declined from 0.18 to 0.028 from 1968 to 1988, indicating that the energy used to harvest seafood increased from about 6 to 36 kcal of fuel for each kilocalorie of protein harvested. The quantity of CO₂ released per calorie of edible fish protein is a linear function of energy use and therefore increased in a similar manner. During this period there was a large increase in fishing effort (caused by the increase in the real price of seafood products, favorable tax treatment for new vessel construction, and low interest loans from the government), and a decline in several important species of fish. The results suggest that fishing pressure could be managed effectively by the regulation of fuel use by the fleet. Despite the increase in the price of many seafood products, fishermen absorbed many of the costs of increasing scarcity in the form of longer working hours and fewer men per vessel.     

Quality and sustainability in the production process: A study of bakeries using an integrated multi-criteria method based on fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS

The objective of the present study is to evaluate, determine, and apply alternatives for improving the quality of the process and the product, with an emphasis on sustainable practices, using an integrated multi-criteria method. For this purpose, an analysis was conducted at a chain of bakeries, aiming to highlight bottlenecks in the production process and in the product. With the support of a literature review, four criteria and seven alternatives were defined to overcome these bottlenecks and, at the same time, contribute to the sustainability of the organization. For data analysis, six decision makers were interviewed and, following their evaluations, an integrated method based on fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS was created. The fuzzy AHP was adopted to establish the importance of the criteria, while the fuzzy TOPSIS was used to evaluate and classify the alternatives developed to bypass the bottlenecks. The results revealed that of the criteria, Criterion “Cr1 – Quality” was prioritized. On the other hand, the alternative with the best performance was “A3 – Physical Layout Reorganization”. Applying this alternative, the study demonstrates the results achieved such as reduction of errors and accident risks, as well as greater fluidity in the productive space. the present study also makes theoretical and managerial contributions to the field, bringing the theory closer to the reality of companies that operate in the food sector.     

The ecohealth system and the community engagement movement in foundations: A case study of mutual benefits from grants funded by the United Nations Foundation

Ecohealth is a process for identifying key environmental determinants causing mortality or morbidity and combating them by mobilizing multiple social sectors. Evolving out of the concept of environmental health, ecohealth provides a framework for long‐term sustainability. The health outcomes anticipated by environmental interventions are part of a long‐term agenda and require fundamental groundwork for the growth of community‐driven development. Building long‐term sustainability requires that two key approaches be developed through ecohealth. The first is the strengthening of local community institutions, whether formal or informal. The second is building financial mechanisms that are more diversified and less reliant on a single donor. As a result, the ecohealth system provides an opportunity for foundations to empower communities, build cross‐cutting cooperation, and gain knowledge through projects. If people's environmental behaviour is to change and be sustained in the long term to produce desired health outcomes, this will require all members of society to be capable of functioning within the existing institutional infrastructure. This means that not only do formal institutions need to become more accessible but also that concepts relating to local informal institutions must be incorporated into ecohealth projects. It is imperative that we identify and understand relevant local institutions and how they can be transformed so that new environmental forms of behaviour can be sustained and result in positive health outcomes. The intersection of environmental and health concerns provides an ideal area in which the gap between government and civil society can be bridged — not only providing solutions to ecohealth concerns, but building government capacity in general and making these positive changes sustainable in the long term. This article is a case study, based on several United Nations Foundation grants. It outlines the significance of traditional community organizations, the breadth of their long‐term relations with communities, their resources, and the adoption of sustained forms of behaviour. In addition, the article highlights the role that international foundations can play in creating innovative financing mechanisms through community‐based foundations.     

Local people's perceptions of participating in conservation in a heritage site: A case study of the Wuyishan Scenery District cultural and natural heritage site in Southeastern China

The perceptions and attitudes of local people in heritage sites strongly influence their behaviour related to protecting heritage resources and improving management. In this study, we collected pertinent data through a questionnaire and group discussions to examine local people's attitudes and perceptions toward participation in heritage protection in Wuyishan Scenery District (WSD). Logistic regression was used to identify the factors that influence local people's perceptions of heritage protection behaviours. The results indicate that education level is the most critical factor in local people's initiatives to protect heritage resources. Local people with higher education levels pay more attention to the status of WSD and behave more positively with regard to conservation. Gender and income are relatively important factors in perceptions of heritage. Males have better knowledge of heritage resources than females do, and inhabitants with higher income levels are more likely to participate in protection, especially after WSD was listed as a World Heritage Site. Education level was always a key demographic factor before and after WSD's listing on the Heritage List. Household size was a significant factor before WSD was listed on the Heritage List, but it was not significant after, when household income became a significant factor.