Does information on the interdependence of climate adaptation measures stimulate collaboration? A case study analysis

A key issue in implementing adaptation strategies at the landscape level is that landowners take measures on their land collectively. We explored the role of information in collective decision-making in a landscape planning process in the Baakse Beek region, the Netherlands. Information was provided on (a) the degree to which measures contribute to multiple purposes, (b) whether they are beneficial to stakeholders representing different sectors of land use, and (c) the need for landscape-level implementation of adaptation measures. Our analysis suggests that the negotiation process resulted in collective decisions for more collaborative adaptation measures than could be expected from individual preferences previous to the planning session. Based on the results, it is plausible that the provided information enhanced integrative agreements by leading stakeholders to realize that they were mutually interdependent, both in acquiring individual benefits as well as in implementing the measures at the landscape level. Our findings are significant in the context of the emerging insight that targeted information provision for climate adaptation of landscapes can support collaboration between the relevant stakeholders.     

Identifying municipal solid waste management opportunities in Al-Bayda City,Libya

In Libya, municipal solid waste management is one of the services provided by the authorities to keep the county clean. This study was conducted in the City of Al-Bayda, located in the eastern part of Libya, as there have been several major problems facing the city in dealing with solid waste management. One of these problems is the generation, collection, handling, transportation, recycling, and disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW). This study has identified that the ongoing disposal of MSW to poorly engineered “dump sites” on the outskirts of the city is unsustainable and will not meet the demands of the growing population and increasing urbanization currently experienced within Al-Bayda. Factors impacting the decision-making and operational processes of MSW include lack of resources and services that significantly affect the disposal of waste, an inadequate number of waste collection containers making the distance to these containers for many households excessive, and thus leading to an increasing likelihood of dumping solid waste in open areas and roadsides. The study recommends that the city government of Al-Bayda should identify synergies and increase partnership-working arrangements with the private sector to ensure efficient management of MSW within the city area.     

No net loss of what,for whom?: stakeholder perspectives to Biodiversity Offsetting in England

Market-based instruments (MBIs) have emerged as a popular approach to balance development and conservation objectives. However, their ability to accomplish this is often beset by poor implementation in practice. This is testament to a widening gap between the rate of policy development and implementation of MBIs and the maturity of research and evaluation on their design, and impact on affected stakeholders. Within this context, this paper examines multi-stakeholder perspectives to the adoption of Biodiversity Offsetting in England, an instrument designed to enable biodiversity losses in one place to be compensated through conservation improvements elsewhere. Analysis reveals issues associated with social and ecological compensation of biodiversity loss. Findings suggest that there is a need for a broader consideration of issues surrounding distributive justice, access to nature and the status of ownership over sites of common heritage when accounting for biodiversity loss and its compensation. This message is salient to both the study context as well as the burgeoning international practice of Biodiversity Offsetting.     

The influence of carbon emissions disclosure on company financial value in an emerging economy

Few studies have been conducted on the impact of carbon emissions disclosure on firms’ financial performance in emerging economies. Furthermore, comparison between accounting-based measures and market-based ones remains limited. This article examines the effect of carbon emissions reporting on the financial value of South African companies for the period 2010–2015. Using panel regression approaches, the findings show that, in most cases, carbon emission disclosure generates a positive relationship with ROA (an accounting-based indicator) but a negative association with MVA (a market-based indicator). The article concludes that accounting-based indicators offer more explanatory power for corporate greening initiatives.     

Environmental literacy in practice: education on tropical rainforests and climate change

Environmental literacy is a key concept to promote individual behavioral changes toward a more sustainable lifestyle to consciously react to environmental challenges such as climate change. Promoting knowledge, attitudes and behaviors provides a reasonable basis to prepare adolescents for their future. A recently proposed environmental literacy model comprises three-dimensional knowledge, environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behavior. The present study applies this model by implementing an intervention focusing on tropical rainforests and climate change in a botanical garden, combining student-centered activities with self-dependent learning. Data from 283 10th graders quantify individual knowledge, attitudes and behavior scores. Knowledge acquisition, a positive development of the Inclusion of Nature in One's Self concept and increasing pro-environmental behavior intentions were found by comparing an intervention group with a test–retest group. In conclusion, our botanical garden’s intervention evidently furthered appreciative tendencies and even encouraged environmental literacy.     

Perceptions of American and Russian environmental scientists of today’s key environmental issues: a comparative analysis

Modern science is global. This is particularly true of environmental science, which has been guided to a considerable extent by international environmental policy. Accordingly, one might expect the standards of scientific research around the globe to have unified over the last 30 years. Yet environmental scientists from different nations and scientific schools have demonstrably dissimilar views on key environmental issues. This is the conclusion we reached after a series of in-depth interviews with prominent American and Russian environmental scientists. The greatest difference was found in the perception of two global issues—stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change.     

Laboratory study on sustainable use of cement–fly ash–polypropylene fiber-stabilized dredged material

The major problem associated with gravity dam was siltation of reservoir which reduced its effective water storage capacity. In order to maintain effective storage capacity of reservoir, dredging of deposits was required and dredged material was disposed of haphazardly causing damage to the sensitive environment. A better alternative could be the possibility of utilization of dredged deposits in construction works involving large quantities of material. The dredged material consisted of very fine sandy silt possessing poor geotechnical characteristics and was required to be stabilized with suitable additives before use as construction material. This laboratory investigation evaluated geotechnical properties of dredged reservoir material stabilized with cement, fly ash and fiber for its probable use as subbase in lightly trafficked roads. Compaction, unconfined compressive strength and tensile strength tests were performed on appropriate combinations of the constituent materials. The results of study revealed significant improvement in unconfined compressive strength and split tensile strength after stabilization with cement and fly ash. The unconfined compressive strength and split tensile strength of cement–fly ash-stabilized dredged reservoir material improved further upon addition of polypropylene fiber. The composite possessed the potential to be utilized as sustainable material in subbase of roads subject to further validation before application in the field. The dredging of sediments improved effective storage capacity of reservoir and increased its sustainable life period. The utilization of fly ash could diminish the environmental and economic concerns arising out of its haphazard disposal.     

Assessment of physicochemical characteristics of Ganga Canal water quality in Uttarakhand

Assessment of physicochemical parameters of Ganga Canal water was carried out during 2012–2013 at Haridwar (Uttarakhand) with two different sites, i.e., Bhimgoda Barrage (site 1—control site) and Bahadrabad (site 2—contaminated site), where canal water flows with loads of pollution from highly commercial and industrial areas. During investigation, maximum turbidity (287.72 ± 56.28 JTU), total solids (1167.60 ± 303.90 mg l^?1), free CO₂ (1.88 ± 0.22 mg l^?1), total hardness (60.14 ± 1.13 mg l^?1), pH (7.1 ± 0.13), nitrate (0.048 ± 0.010), nitrite (0.019 ± 0.001), biochemical oxygen demand (2.866 ± 1.098), chemical oxygen demand (6.8 ± 2.61) and phosphate (0.087 ± 0.015), while minimum velocity (1.71 ± 0.19 ms^?1), transparency (0.12 ± 0.08 m) and dissolved oxygen (7.95 ± 0.44 mg l^?1) were recorded in monsoon season at site 2 in comparison with site 1. The mean values of these parameters were compared with WHO and ISI standards and found significant differences (p < 0.05) in the mean values of turbidity, total solids, pH, dissolved oxygen, free CO₂ and total hardness with sampling sites. The turbidity of both the sites 1 and 2 was recorded above the permissible limit. Turbidity of site 2 is much higher than of site 1, so it is counted as more polluted. The values of the studied parameters were more during monsoon season and summer season at site 2 as compared to site 1. The results indicated that most of the physicochemical parameters from Ganga Canal system were within or at periphery in comparison with permissible limit of ISI and WHO for drinking water and therefore may be suitable for domestic purposes, but it requires perceptible consideration due to intense changes in climate and increase in pollution.     

Contributions of sustainability science to the study of environmental health problems

From the ontological point of view, environmental health problems do not differ from problems of unsustainability. This leads us to think that sustainability science could contribute to resolve important questions that studies on environmental health are not resolving. A literature review was made in order to analyse the scope and limitations of studies on environmental health problems. Based on the characteristics of environmental health studies, we highlighted some examples of questions that are being ignored and analysed four contributions that sustainability science could make to solve them. These contributions come from three key components of sustainability science: (1) the unit of analysis—social–ecological systems, (2) a theory—resilience theory and, specifically, social–ecological resilience, (3) and the approaches of complex systems and transdisciplinarity. From a sustainability science perspective, four contributions could be made: environmental health problems are redefined as social–ecological systems; environmental health is assumed to be the result of adaptation processes; the environment and society are recognized as systems, not as matrices of factors; and human action acquires content and structure and, in turn, explains the behaviour of environmental health problems.     

Simulating spatial pattern of urban growth using GIS-based SLEUTH model: a case study of eastern corridor of Tehran metropolitan region,Iran

Tehran metropolitan region (TMR) has experienced rapid urbanization in the last few decades. This accelerating urbanization trend mainly arising from high natural population growth and rural–urban migration along with rapid socioeconomic changes formed unplanned and uncontrolled urban expansion in peri-urban areas and resulted in degrading environmental quality and considerable changes in the urban landscapes of the TMR. Thus, the main objective of this research is to model spatial pattern of urban growth in eastern corridor of TMR using GIS-based SLEUTH model and the prediction of future developments of the region from 2014 to 2060. The SLEUTH is one of the most powerful models for urban growth modeling. This model analyzes the spatial pattern of urban growth based on historical data obtained from satellite images of 1987, 2003, 2011, and 2014. The results indicate that the most important factors affecting the urban growth are slope resistance and road gravity. The slope resistance is the highest coefficients value, which illustrates the limiting influence of the slopes on general trend of urban growth in eastern corridor of the TMR. The road gravity stands in second place where it displaces orientation of linear form of outlying pattern alongside the transportation network; it represents that the main pattern of urban growth in peri-urban areas of the region have a linear nature and edge expansion due to slope resistance and road-influenced growth, while spread, diffusion, and breed coefficients display low probability of new spreading center and spontaneous growth in the study area. In addition, the prediction of urban growth for 2020–2060 revealed that urban expansion which was 41,500 ha in 2014 will increase to 179,400 ha in 2060 with noticeable growth rate of 145.6 %. Comparing study area and other researches indicate that the urban growth happens in high rate in eastern corridor. One of the main reasons of this growth goes back to the formation of the second homes for residents of Tehran metropolitan city.