Promoting Sustainability with Ecological, Economic and Social Dimensions in Developing Countries

Sustainable development is one of the most important ideas, and goals of our time. It is defined as ＂development which meets the needs and aspirations of the current generation and develops safe and sound society for future generation＂. Achieving sustainable development thus involves a vigorous and urgent debate on different dimensions. The different dimensions of sustainability as a framework involve all issues such as science, technology, economic growth and development, health, education, finance investment and trade, politics, natural disasters, population growth and terrorism, etc. No single dimension is responsible to develop sustainable society. This article mainly described the integrated relationship among the three dimensions ofsustainability.     

美国清洁能源的成本和效益

将从分析美国新能源战略的有效性和成本入手,梳理和评估美国政府的新能源方案,同时提出一些关于清洁能源的建议。选择了美国推广清洁能源行为作为对象来讨论,不仅因为美国是世界上最大的清洁能源和可再生能源的投资者,同时还强调美国在运行这一投资的时候并没有使用自由市场来推动,而是完全由政府买单和控制。具体要讨论的方案是：核清理;低收入家庭房屋保暖;先进的汽车电池（牵引）系统及组件;电动汽车补贴退税制度。通过对每个方案内容的阐述和成本、效益的分析,来评估这些方案是否是有价值的和值得继续的。最后的结论可以归纳为这些清洁能源实施项目非常低效,并且提出一系列的证据表明这些项目在没有政府巨额经费支持的情况下是无法继续的,同时表明在没有严格的项目完成日期、持续发生超过预算的额外支出的情况下,政府的支持计划很可能和初衷背道而驰     

社会资本与经济增长及环境影响的关系研究

"社会资本"作为一个多维度的概念,近年来引起了全世界的广泛关注。大量证据已证明,高水平的社会资本是生态、社会和经济职责和谐过程的先决条件,社会资本对于促进经济增长、缓解贫困、提高工程绩效、管理自然资源与保护环境非常关键。本文阐释了社会资本概念,分析了社会资本的主要成分、分析层次及主要类型等维度,指出社会资本的主要成分包括网络、规范、制裁,分析层次包括个体、中观、宏观,主要类型包括结合型、沟通型、联系型;在此基础上,梳理总结了社会资本与经济增长及环境影响关系的国际研究进展,阐释了社会资本促进经济增长、影响生态环境的作用机理,分析了社会资本与适应能力的关系,简要介绍了国际上理解和研究社会系统与关键资源之间的相互作用和影响的思想框架。最后,讨论分析了社会资本与经济增长、环境影响的关系研究中需要进一步完善的问题。     

长三角地区社会福利与经济增长耦合协调时空分异

社会福利与经济增长的耦合协调是城市可持续发展的核心问题之一。以长三角41地市为研究单元,运用熵值法测度社会福利与经济增长指数,进一步借助耦合协调评价模型计算协调度、发展度以及耦合度,并据此进行耦合协调类型划分及其空间关联特征分析。结果表明:1长三角41地市社会福利与经济增长整体趋势波动上升,但近年来受经济下行影响,社会福利随经济增长出现缓慢下降趋势。2社会福利与经济增长指数空间吻合度较高且格局相对稳定。相比社会福利,经济增长首位特征明显,市际差异相对突出。3耦合度具有明显空间分异规律,初步形成\"合宁沪杭甬\"Z字型耦合协调发展轴带。4安徽省多数地市属于社会福利与经济增长失调衰退类型,亟需平衡二者关系,寻求优化路径,推动社会福利与经济增长向更高层次耦合协调发展类型演进。     

Sustainability classifications in engineering: discipline and approach

In order to discuss how to advance sustainability in engineering, it is necessary to be clear as to what exactly is the science of sustainability. The linkage between sustainability philosophy and scientific principles has, in some ways, been acknowledged in the wider literature. Moreover, the recent scholarship on sustainability in international literature has focused on providing definitions, policies and methods, though from an engineering perspective, there is an obvious need for clarity on how the engineering and science community can integrate the science of sustainability into practice. Prima facie, this article provides an overview of the development of sustainability science through a textual analysis to collate the underlying discourse and ideology cited in literature. While the number one sustainability challenge is to mitigate climate change, compiling a definition genesis of sustainability will assist the engineering community in gaining an understanding in the underlying philosophical frames. The aim of this paper is to analyse sustainability information in the print press, journals, periodicals and textbooks since publication patterns contribute to our understanding of the cognitive aspects of scholarly knowledge development.     

Linking Ecological Sustainability and World Food Needs

Ecological approaches to agriculture can provide useful guidelines for addressing world food needs, while avoiding adverse environmental and social impacts. Experiments in both natural and agricultural ecosystems suggest that systems with high plant diversity may be more productive, more stable and more resilient than species-poor systems. In addition, systems with high plant diversity support higher levels of biodiversity in other functional groups, which may enhance the productivity of the plant component. Given these benefits of diverse systems, various approaches for converting conventional high input agricultural systems to more sustainable systems are addressed. Andow and Hidaka's (1989) concept of production syndromes is considered in the context of conversion to sustainable agriculture.     

社会资本和环境资本在可持续发展中的作用

本文分析了经济、社会、环境体系中社会资本与环境资本对经济的影响,用可持续发展观点修正了传统的经济增长理论。     

资源环境对南京市经济发展的“增长阻尼”

由于土地与其他自然资源的限制,经济增长速度相比没有限制情况下降低的现象,即为资源对经济增长的阻尼效应。本文将土地资源与生态环境影响因素合并,利用生态足迹模型解释资源环境复合要素,对传统的阻尼模型进行修正,定量测算资源环境对南京市经济发展的增长阻尼。结果表明,南京市经济发展迅速,土地资源和生态环境对经济发展产生了较为明显的制约作用,其对经济发展的增长阻尼为0.03611。充分发挥资本对资源环境的替代作用,合理利用土地资源,优化产业结构,降低人口的增长率是实现南京市经济可持续发展的基本途径。     

基于生态足迹模型的中国发展可持续性评估

可持续发展的定量测度是可持续发展战略得心实施的重要条件，加拿大学者Mathis Wackemagel提出的生态中迹模型就是一种测量可持续的新方法，该方法通过计算支持特定区域人类社会所有消费活动所需要的土地（生态足迹）与该区域可提供的生物生产性土地（生态承载力0相比较来判断区域发展的可持续性，本文首先简单介绍了生态足迹模型的基本概念、计算方法，然后对中国2001年生态足迹进行了实证研究，研究结果表明，2001年中国人均生态足迹为1.47435hm^2而人均承载力只有1.05306hm^2，生态赤字为0.42129hm^2中国发展具有强不可持续性，现有生产、消费模式的转变是可持续发展的必然要求。     

资源约束与经济增长研究

资源约束条件下的经济增长研究对中翻经济的可持续发展具有重要的理论和现实意义.本文从宏观经济的微观基础分析入手.结合当前中国社会和经济发展的实际,在传统效用函数的基础上,引入了社会地位和资源两个影响因素,通过模型的静态及动态分析,重点研究资源约束对经济系统均衡条件、动态转移的影响.分析结果表明:①当期资源的使用量取决于资源的边际效用、消费的边际效用和时间贴现率的大小.②消费资本比足够大或消费足够多且资本与消费的边际替代率足够小是经济系统存在鞍点均衡的必要条件.③资源消耗足够多时,消费资本比将显著下降.并从资源约束这一角度解释了中国经济增长的投资消费失衡问题.最后从实证角度,利用协整理论验证了资源消耗与消费资本比之间的反向关系.     

Uncovering the Connections Among Sustainability, Governance and GDP

This paper examines the connections among sustainability, governance and GDP, using the data from 123 countries. Sustainability is found to be related with GDP in two contradictory ways. On the one hand, growth in GDP strengthens a nation＇s ability to maintain favorable environmental conditions into the future. On the other hand, GDP growth is built on more consumption of natural resources, and therefore generates a larger ＂foot-print＂ on the Earth. Governance plays a key role in sustainable development. However, it is not helping to reduce our footprint on the Earth. In fact, good governance is linked to a larger footprint. This reflects our materialist value and human impulse. When a society prefers the comfort and wellbeing of human beings to the welfare of its environment, democratic governance might be used as an effective tool against nature.     

Social sustainability performance indicators – experiences from process industry

Sustainable industrial development can be advanced through the development and application of sustainability metrics. This study addressed the application of social sustainability metrics to the measurement of sustainability performance within process industry and to metal production at the plant level in particular. The applied social sustainability indicators are one part of the overall sustainability index which aims at presenting a balanced and holistic view of plant-level sustainability performance. Application of plant-level indicators can support informed decision-making and fill in potential gaps in corporate-level assessments and reporting initiatives with respect to plant-level social sustainability performance. The social part of the overall index provides information on both in-plant sustainability performance and on the direct and in-direct impacts of plant operations on the surrounding society with special emphasis on the supply chain and emerging social due diligence aspects. The results of pilot implementation of social indicators in Ruukki Lappohja plant indicated a very high level of social sustainability performance with minor areas of improvement such as social risk management auditing covering the whole supply chain, suppliers communication on social responsibility requirements to workers and sub-suppliers, signing of the code of conduct by employees and reporting on policies on local community relations, safety in supply chain covering suppliers and contractors and factory health and safety performance in relation to average field of industry performance in this field.     

资源环境约束下的中国经济增长质量研究

现有对于资源环境与经济增长之间关系的研究主要是在经济增长数量分析的框架下展开分析,而很少从经济增长质量分析的框架入手进行考察。经济增长质量是指经济增长内在的性质与规律,具体包括经济增长的结构、经济增长的稳定性、福利变化与成果分配以及资源利用和生态环境代价四个维度。当资源利用效率不断提高和生态环境代价逐渐降低时,经济增长质量都将会得到提高。本文从经济增长质量视角出发,采用国际规范的逻辑实证主义分析方法,以中国经济转型时期的省级面板数据为样本对改革开放以来中国资源环境代价与经济增长质量之间的关系进行理论研究与实证考察。研究表明:模型的估计结果与理论研究的结论是一致的,中国经济转型期资源环境代价与经济增长质量之间存在显著的正向关系。因此,在中国经济发展进入新阶段的背景下,在经济增长数量不断扩张的同时,还需要不断改进经济增长的资源利用效率和生态环境代价,要实现经济增长的数量与质量的统一,追求中国经济发展的长期可持续性。     

大庆市城市经济系统可持续性评价

三角模型作为一种直观的平台能够很好地图解区域可持续综合发展状况及长期趋势.由于具有直观性和简明性,三角模型易于被不同层次的学者和政策制定者理解和应用.根据经济发展、资源-能源消耗及环境污染的相互关系,结合生态学表现,利用三角模型工具分析评估区域经济可持续发展状况和长期趋势.本文选择我国最大的石油资源型城市--大庆市作为典型案例.大庆市位于黑龙江省西部,下辖5个区和4个县,2006年全市土地总面积为2.1219万hm2,总人口269.3万.结果表明,大庆市经济系统可持续性状况不容乐观,"八五"、"九五"时期处于不可持续和弱可持续性状态,"十五"中后期才缓慢进入一般可持续性状态;"八五"时期大庆市经济系统具有一般可持续性发展趋势,"九五"时期呈现强可持续性发展趋势,进入新世纪后却呈现出由强可持续性向一般可持续性的发展趋势.     

ABORIGINAL PEOPLE’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS PAYING FOR WATER IN A WATER-SCARCE REGION OF AUSTRALIA

In Australia, governments are committed to water infrastructure developments that are both environmentally sustainable and economically viable. Consumption-based pricing is seen as a water conservation strategy. This has significant implications for Aboriginal communities, many of which do not pay for water use and experience economic hardship. This paper outlines attitudes towards paying for water use in five Aboriginal communities in South Australia. Inability to pay for services was a common factor hindering willingness to pay for water. While different factors were raised in different communities, most communities believed that water is a ‘cultural right’ that should not be paid for. The research found that strategies such as communication and community involvement in the decision-making processes around water supply are necessary to facilitate cost recovery and to promote water conservation.     

我国社会发展科技事业的中心议题——人口、资源与环境的协调发展

人口、资源、环境是经济和社会发展的基础,人口、资源与环境协调发展是经济和社会持续、稳定、协调发展的关键。我国是一个发展中的社会主义大国,协调人口、资源与环境关系需要动员全社会力量,宣传和研究工作要跟上,认识和方法要提高。