Evaluating the role of environmental quality in the sustainable rural economic development of England

The issue of the sustainable development of rural economies in England has recently received considerable attention. This is because many of the poorest areas in the country are rural, often of high environmental quality, but suffering from high unemployment and a lack of services and facilities. The rapid decline in agricultural incomes and in-migration of affluent urban workers since 1990 has exacerbated economic inequality in such areas. A number of factors have the potential to drive rural development and this paper applies, and considers, the feasibility of a method from the USA for combining economic and environmental variables in a regional growth model to examine the hypothesis that environmental quality is an important determinant of sustainable rural development in England. The model output suggests that, although environmental quality does play a role in sustainable rural development in England there are other, more important, factors driving development. These include business and communications infra-structure, the degree and opportunities for commuting and underlying employment prospects. The robustness and limitations of the method for combining economic and environmental variables is discussed in relation to the spatial interrelatedness of Local Authority Districts in England, and conclusions are drawn about areas for refinement and improvement of the method.

A multiple criteria evaluation of sustainable agricultural development models using AHP

Selection of the appropriate agricultural development model has become an important issue in Iran. Using data from Fars province of Iran, the purpose of this paper is to use analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for selecting between the two competing sustainable agricultural development models, which have been developed based on the general tenets of Ecological Modernization (EM) and De-Modernization (DM) theories. Farmers, environmentalists, board members of rural cooperative, rural women and experts from Fars Agricultural (Jehad-e-Keshavarzi) Organization participated in application of AHP to this study. They applied AHP to determine the priority of DM and EM based sustainable agricultural development models. Each group determined the priority of the two models for sustainable agricultural development. The findings indicated that ecological criteria i.e. wise use of resources, environmental protection and product quality are the most important criteria for sustainable agriculture of Iran, followed by economic criterion employment and social criterion participation. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to determine the critical factors that affected the priority of alternatives. The results indicated that EM-based sustainable agricultural development model has a higher priority as the theoretical base of agricultural development of Iran. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue     

Laying a solid foundation for sustainable development in Bolivian mountain villages

In Bolivia, recent decentralisation policies have broadened the participation of local actors in development processes. However, development is far from sustainable, and poverty and natural resources degradation still increase. The challenge is to develop strategies that achieve the genuine participation of poor farmers in natural resources management and sustainable development. The logical strategy, which was developed and validated in five Bolivian mountain villages, is an example. In this strategy, first a solid foundation for sustainable development is laid, with activities focussing on five basic conditions for sustainable development in rural villages: leadership and organisation, responsible participation, effective collaboration, mutual trust and environmental awareness. The results show that the existence of a solid foundation is crucial for the success of other development activities, such as soil and water conservation activities. However, given that 2 years after the project’s withdrawal the firmness of the foundation had slightly weakened, it was concluded that a better integration of these villages in local development processes is essential to profit from the new dynamics. This is especially true for soil and water conservation. To achieve this integration, municipalities—with the support of international development agencies—must be encouraged to invest in laying this solid foundation in rural villages and in facilitating follow-up activities to keep the dynamic process going. This study shows that such investments result in better organised villages, more equality, and the genuine participation of more people in sustainable village development. Effective collaboration and accountability at institutional level are, however, required.     

The environmental impact of industrialization in East Asia and strategies toward sustainable development

The East Asian economy has been growing fast in recent years, and environmental stresses are building up rapidly. Transboundary air pollution, water shortages, drinking water contamination, freshwater and marine pollution, deforestation, climatic disasters, and other environmental problems are becoming serious threats to the well-being of people in this densely populated region. The ESI (environmental sustainability index) reported by the World Economic Forum in 2005 is a good indicator of the environmental status of the region; most East Asian countries ranked at the bottom. East Asia is not moving toward a sustainable society, and the environment will not sustain the current rate of economic development for long. The traditional culture of East Asia used to be sustainable, so we can learn much from our traditions. Land use should be planned from an ecological point of view so as to best preserve the land’s productivity and stability. There should be definite goals as to where and how much to preserve the three important ecological bases: forests, coastal wetlands and agricultural farms. The forest is the base for the terrestrial ecosystem, including flood control, water resources, and climate; the coastal wetland is the base for the marine ecosystem; farmland is the base for producing food. Within these defined goals, limits should be set on how much land can be utilized for activities like urban development, manufacturing, and recreation. Limits on the pollution load resulting from such activities should be set so as not to irreversibly damage the environment. Economic development should be planned to allow the use of energy and resources only after satisfying these constraints.

The role of the engineering community in sustainable development

Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability assessment is an important part of the decision process in organisations. Sustainability is difficult to define or measure because it is a complex concept. To assess the sustainability level of an organisation, a unique attempt has been made using fuzzy-based Kano model based on the stakeholders' satisfaction. The Kano model is a customer satisfaction assessment tool that must be precise, and it is incorporated with fuzzy logic because it has the capability to replicate the human perceptions. In this context, the approach is used to assess the sustainability by using the stakeholders' satisfaction for different criteria and it provides information regarding improvement in sustainability.     

A “measurable” definition of sustainable development based on closed cycles of resources and its application to energy systems

Human society consumes resources that it is not able to reproduce. Human activities are still based on “open cycles,” starting from a condition of natural environmental balance and reaching an environmental imbalance. The challenging scope of scientific and technological research towards sustainability appears clear if it is based on this analysis: to find development systems based on “closed cycles” of resources. The challenging objective of realizing closed cycles leads to a definition of sustainability that indicates the path to sustainable development, as well as stating the general principle. It also provides a key to the qualitative measurement of sustainability. This means that the sustainability level of a system can be measured by measuring its capacity to avoid the consumption of resources. Zero consumption is a necessary condition for sustainability, and brings about as a side effect the highly desired “zero-waste” result. Materials entering the proposed endless scheme pass through the process of usefulness without losing their capacity to feed the system again after being used. Thus, the concept of “consumption” itself is replaced by one of “use” when resources are inserted into closed loops capable of feeding human development. The application of the closed cycle sustainability criterion particularly displays its feasibility, and a theoretical guiding role, in the energy sector. Energy vectors such as hydrogen and electricity enable the closure of the energy resources loop by effectively approaching the objective of “zero consumption” (and the side result of “zero waste”) through already demonstrated technological solutions.     

Problems of sustainable development and ecological indication in radioactively contaminated areas

Lands that have become unusable because of contamination with long-lived artificial radionuclides require special measures aimed at their monitoring and rehabilitation. In such areas, specific processes in the biota are associated with the direct effect of ionizing radiation on some species, secondary changes depending on the ecology of organisms trophically connected with these species, and side effects explained by the regime of isolation established in radiation reserves. The dynamics of floras and faunas in radiation reserves are determined by successional changes in plant communities, migration of radionuclides, and the protective status of these territories.     

Environmental, cultural, economic and socio-community sustainability: a framework for sustainable tourism in resort destinations

This paper utilizes an inclusive community based sustainability framework with a focus on a resort destination in providing a potential model for more inclusive long-range destination planning and implementation. Four diverse, but interrelated areas of sustainable tourism were specified in this framework for a more comprehensive process including ecological, cultural, economic and socio-community sustainability. In addition a strategic community driven structure, which provides direction, information and practices, serves the purpose of integrating and implementing the framework. The unique tourism destination, Noosa in Australia is used as an example of embracing sustainable tourism as a community and as part of a larger focus on the four key components of sustainability. By viewing sustainable community attributes as assets, all of which are important to manage, enhance and/or conserve, it is expected that the resort community will continue to attract visitors to feel connected and committed to experiencing its lifestyle, sense-of-community and natural features while also contributing to community sustainable stewardship and a strong tourism economy. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue. Dr. Richins is Chair of the Graduate Program within the School of Travel Industry Management at University of Hawaii. He holds a Ph.D. from James Cook University in Australia and a B.S. and M.S. from University of Oregon. Previously he held leadership positions for over 15 years in Australian and New Zealand including Waikato University, University of Newcastle and University of the Sunshine Coast. He was also Chair of the Resort Management program at Sierra Nevada College in Nevada.     

The use of a Delphi consultation to explore the curriculum for sustainable development in engineering

Developing a curriculum for sustainable development for engineers, even on a small scale, is a complex task. The University of Manchester has been undertaking a pilot project for an experiential, student-centred approach across engineering and science disciplines, described elsewhere. But that pilot also provided a springboard for the study described in this article. Group techniques for resolving complex issues have been around for half a century but mostly applied to questions of forecasting. Of these, the Delphi technique seemed to best fit the curriculum issues that we wished to explore. This article sets out some of the background to the choice of the Delphi approach, the questions that we sought to answer, the responses that we obtained and some discussion of the appropriateness of the approach to other issues of sustainable development and curriculum design.     

Integration of DFE and DFMA for the sustainable development of an automotive component

The recent developments in manufacturing organizations recognize sustainability as an important value addition for survival in the competitive scenario. The design engineers are in search of approaches for creating environmental conscious products. The purpose of this paper is to report a research carried out for ensuring sustainable product design by the integration of Design for Environment (DFE) and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) methodologies. In this context, this paper reports a case study carried out in an automotive component. The candidate product is the charge alternator pulley. The existing pulley has been created using Computer Aided Design. Then sustainability analysis was conducted on the existing component for determining environmental impact. This is followed by the engineering analysis of the component using ANSYS. Then conceptual design changes were developed in the proposed product using DFMA concept. Then the environmental impact has been evaluated in terms of carbon footprint, energy consumption and air/water impacts on proposed product. It has been found that the optimized pulley design possesses minimal environmental impact. The result of the case study indicated that the integration of DFE and DFMA concept could initiate new developments in sustainable designs with minimal impact to the environment and it also reduces the product cost.     

Way for sustainable development of energy in China

The report of Chinese Communist Party's 18th National Congress clearly stated that the construction of ecological civilization needs to join hands with the overall layout of the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics,and the greatest obstacle to achieving ecological civilization is the energy structure in China.Currently,the third industrial revolution—marked by green technology and cloud computing technology—is happening,and it will have a huge impact on future energy development.The fundamental way to solve the problem of energy resource constraints is developing the renewable energy,and the fundamental approach for renewable energy is developing distributed energy and services.The important factors to achieving China's energy production and consumption revolution are accelerating the construction of distributed energy system and overall energy structure adjustment in China.     

资源型区域可持续发展能力测度研究

可持续发展是人类的共同发展战略。资源型区域常常会面临资源枯竭、自然生态环境恶化等"资源诅咒"问题,其可持续发展潜力受到严峻挑战,及时了解资源型区域的可持续发展能力水平对促进其走向可持续具有重要意义。本研究首先通过理论推演分析,对资源型区域可持续发展能力的内涵与外延进行了界定,提出创新支持能力与转型支持能力是该类型区域实现可持续发展的重要子能力,并从生存支持能力、经济支持能力、环境支持能力、社会支持能力、创新支持能力、转型支持能力六个子能力系统方面构建了资源型区域可持续发展能力综合评价指标体系;其次,采用全排列多边形综合图示法以及距离协调度测算法,以典型资源型省域山西省为实证分析对象,对山西"资源型经济转型国家综合配套改革试验区"设立前后各两个时点的可持续发展能力等级及其协调度变化情况进行了测度比较。结果表明:2010年"综改区"设立后,山西省可持续发展综合能力有了较大的提升,由2007年的IV级弱持续发展水平提升到了2014年的Ⅱ级中可持续发展水平。但环境支持能力与转型支持能力两个子能力系统仍处在较低水平。同时,可持续发展能力系统内六大子能力系统的协调度有了较大改善,但仍存在环境支持能力与其他各子能力系统极度不协调的现象。实证结果对山西提升可持续发展能力具有重要理论指导意义,也反映了构建的指标体系具有较好的适用性。     

“竞争申请制”:可持续发展政策试点与央地关系重构

可持续发展目标(SDGs)的提出,开启了人类可持续发展领域最宏大的政策实验,也为开展国际视野的比较公共政策研究提供了难得机遇。执行SDGs及国家可持续发展政策需要处理好中央政府与地方政府间关系,而政策试点是协调这一关系的重要政策工具。已有文献对经济政策试点做了较充分的研究,然而对旨在实现经济、社会与环境协调的可持续发展政策试点,现有研究尚缺乏成型理论。在复杂央地关系格局下,对于需持续投入成本且成果难以界定的可持续发展政策试点,其具有怎样的不同于经济政策试点的机制?此外,众多西方学者将美国作为政策试点研究的制度基础并视其为“民主实验室”。然而,政策试点在以中国为代表的不同体制国家中同样存在,并以多样的机制发挥作用。那么,不同国家体制内的可持续发展政策试点又有哪些异同?政策试点影响下中国既有的央地关系发生了怎样的重构?对此,本文基于最典型案例原则,选取中国与美国响应SDGs分别开展的政策试点进行比较研究。笔者识别了不同体制下试点机制的异同,指出中国基于“竞争申请制”开展的可持续发展政策试点强化了中央部委与地方政府间关系,形成了地方官员的可持续发展激励,保障了政策试点的实施。     

基于海洋生态产品的海岛旅游绿色发展经济激励额度评估

海洋生态系统为人类提供了环境友好型海产品、可持续海洋原材料、可持续基因资源、生态旅游产品、海景观房地产等海洋生态标签生态产品和减缓温室效应产品、净化环境要素产品、灾害控制产品等海洋关键环境要素生态产品。本文以海洋生态产品理论为基础,将海岛旅游绿色发展含义界定为旅游目的地环境友好型海产品的生产与消费,旅游目的地海洋生态系统与森林生态系统持续稳定地提供核心生态系统服务和旅游业低碳排放;并运用海洋渔业生态标签制度(MFELS)、生态系统服务付费(PES)和市场替换法(MRM),以山东省长岛县为案例地,以问卷调查和访谈调查获取的数据为基础,对海岛旅游绿色发展经济激励额度进行了评估。结果表明:(1)运用MFELS可获得0.207 0×10~8元/a的经济激励资金,其中山东省短途客源地游客、京津冀晋豫中途客源地游客和其他省市区长途客源地游客平均每人次分别承担13.26元、17.57元和17.56元;(2)运用PES可获得0.673 6×10~8元/a的经济激励资金,其中短途游客、中途游客和长途游客平均每人次分别承担43.44元、57.89元和54.42元;(3)运用MRM可获得0.154 1×10~8元/a的经济激励资金,其中各类游客平均每人次分别承担0.00元、14.59元和34.58元;(4)运用MFELS、PES和MRM可获得1.034 7×10~8元/a的经济激励资金,其中各类游客平均每人次分别承担56.70元、90.05元和106.56元。研究建议:各客源地游客承担海岛旅游绿色发展经济激励资金应考虑区域的差异性特征。     

Spillover effects of trade and foreign direct investment on economic growth: an implication for sustainable development

Environment, Development and Sustainability - This paper explores the advantages of international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), which can be the main factors of transferring technology...     

Modeling groundwater flow and its associated environmental problem in a lowland coastal plain: a first step towards a sustainable development plan

Groundwater is an important resource in the alluvial coastal lowland plains. In the Shiroishi lowland plain, southwestern Kyushu Island of Japan, land subsidence due to groundwater development has long been recognized as an environmental issue. Land subsidence can have several negative economic and social implications. In this study, an integrated numerical groundwater and land subsidence model, which combines a three-dimensional numerical groundwater flow model and a one-dimensional soil consolidation model, was used to simulate the dynamic groundwater flow and ground subsidence due to pumping. On the other hand, a groundwater optimization model was also formulated to search for an optimal safe yield of groundwater pumping without violating physical, environmental, social-economic constraints. The model results reveal that groundwater levels in the aquifers greatly vary from season to season in response to varying climatic and pumping conditions. Consequently, land subsidence has rapidly occurred throughout the area with the central prone in Shiroishi plain. The study also proposes a countermeasure against subsiding process in the area by means of numerical models. The optimization model result suggests that pumping can be increased in the northern part of the study area without leading to significant land subsidence.     

Successful and sustainable governance of the lower Yellow River,China: A floodplain utilization approach for balancing ecological conservation and development

Environment, Development and Sustainability - A novel model has been proposed for the methodical development and safe utilization of the lower Yellow River floodplain to provide flood control with...     

电力发展对中国经济增长的影响及其区域差异

1990年以来,随着中国电力体制改革的深入,电力基础设施与经济同步发展。由于电力生产与电力消费存在着显著的空间差异,电力发展对经济增长的影响可能存在空间差异。本文利用1990—2011年省级面板数据,基于增长回归模型,采用动态面板分析方法,以电力投资率和发电装机容量作为衡量电力发展的指标,检验电力发展对经济增长的影响以及这种影响的区域间差异。实证研究的主要发现如下:首先,电力发展对经济增长有显著的正面影响,而且其长期影响明显高于短期影响。其中,电力投资率每增加1个百分点,短期经济增长率提高0.076个百分点,长期经济增长率提高0.493个百分点;发电装机容量每增加1个百分点,短期经济增长率提高0.381个百分点,长期经济增长率提高1.905个百分点。其次,电力发展对经济增长的影响具有显著的地区差异,对东部地区的经济增长影响显著高于西部地区。其中,电力投资率增加1个百分点对东部地区的经济增长率影响高于西部地区达0.913个百分点;电力装机容量增加1个百分点对东部地区的经济增长率影响高于西部地区达0.959个百分点。实证结果表明,电力发展对各地区经济增长影响是不平衡的,这种影响对区域经济协调发展起到了负面作用。基于实证研究,给出如下政策建议:首先,考虑到中国经济在未来20年中仍将保持较高增速,中国应继续促进电力发展投资,以促进经济增长。其次,从政策导向来看,电力发展政策应当充分加强电力发展对区域协调发展的作用,使得西部地区能从电力输出中获得更高收益,提高电力发展对区域经济增长影响的公平性。     

The influence of climate and dam construction on the Ibera wetlands, Argentina

The purpose of this work is to assess the impact on the Esteros del Ibera wetland ecosystem caused by the Yacyreta dam, a large hydroelectric power plant on the Parana River, Argentina, in comparison to other factors of environmental change. The project of the dam started around 1970. The power plant began operating in 1994. In 1989, the neighboring Ibera wetland ecosystem showed a substantial increase in the water level for which several different causes were conceivable, including climate change and the dam construction. We analyzed all existing hydrometeorological data and studied other changes that were observed in this ecosystem. A water balance model was used to analyze different scenarios. Increased groundwater inflow, generated since the construction of the dam, appears to be affecting the wetland more than any other factor. The study has implications for the assessment of global and regional consequences of building dams.

Linking perceived land and water resources degradation,scarcity and livelihood conflicts in southwestern Tanzania: implications for sustainable rural livelihood

In Africa, the land and water resources quality are key factors for sustainable development. The degradation of the quality of these resources leads to scarcities and conflicts, which together threaten the sustainability of rural livelihoods. This work investigated and analysed the livelihoods conflicts over the land and water resources and their scarcities, policies that contributed to the land and water scarcities and the livelihood conflicts and linkage of the conflicts to the resources scarcities and degradation. Implications of degradation of the resources, development policies and livelihoods conflicts on sustainable development are discussed. Literature study, visits and discussions, participatory assessments, observations and questionnaire survey were used tools to collect data. Interviews of the 266 households revealed that, those experiencing the land and water scarcities and conflicts over these resources are significantly (p < 0.001) higher than those not experiencing the scarcities and conflicts. Crop-livestock competition, over the land and water resources causes prominent conflicts. A significant, (p < 0.05) associations of livelihoods conflicts to water shortage and period of water shortage for crop and livestock production were found. Improved accessibility to soil and water management technologies, wildlife–livestock co-existence, recognition of needs and land rights for pastoralists are recommended to minimize scarcities and herders versus farmers’ conflicts.