Using social network and stakeholder analysis to help evaluate infectious waste management: A step towards a holistic assessment

Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a solid waste management scheme requires an accurate analysis and integration of several determining features. In addition to the technical aspects, any such system shows a complex interaction of actors with varying stakes, decision-making power and influence, as well as a favourable or disabling environment. When capitalizing on the knowledge and experience from a specific case, it is also crucial that experts do not “forget” or underestimate the importance of such social determinants and that they are familiar with the methods and tools to assess them. Social network analysis (SNA) and stakeholder analysis (SA) methods can be successfully applied to better understand actors’ role and actions, analyse driving forces and existing coordination among stakeholders, as well as identify bottlenecks in communication which affect daily operations or strategic planning for the future way forward. SNA and SA, appropriately adjusted for a certain system, can provide a useful integration to methods by assessing other aspects to ensure a comprehensive picture of the situation. This paper describes how to integrate SNA and SA in order to survey a solid waste management system. This paper presents the results of an analysis of On-Nuch infectious waste incinerator in Bangkok, Thailand. Stakeholders were interviewed and asked to prioritize characteristics and relationships which they consider particularly important for system development and success of the scheme. In such a way, a large quantity of information about organization, communication between stakeholders and their perception about operation, environmental and health impact, and potential alternatives for the system was collected in a systematic way. The survey results suggest that stakeholders are generally satisfied with the system operation, though communication should be improved. Moreover, stakeholders should be strategically more involved in system development planning, according to their characteristics, to prevent negative reactions.     

COVID-19: From health crises to food security anxiety and policy implications

Like the rest of the world, African countries are reeling from the health, economic and social effects of COVID-19. The continent’s governments have responded by imposing rigorous lockdowns to limit the spread of the virus. The various lockdown measures are undermining food security, because stay at home orders have among others, threatened food production for a continent that relies heavily on agriculture as the bedrock of the economy. This article draws on quantitative data collected by the GeoPoll, and, from these data, assesses the effect of concern about the local spread and economic impact of COVID-19 on food worries. Qualitative data comprising 12 countries south of the Sahara reveal that lockdowns have created anxiety over food security as a health, economic and human rights/well-being issue. By applying a probit model, we find that concern about the local spread of COVID-19 and economic impact of the virus increases the probability of food worries. Governments have responded with various efforts to support the neediest. By evaluating the various policies rolled out we advocate for a feminist economics approach that necessitates greater use of data analytics to predict the likely impacts of intended regulatory relief responses during the recovery process and post-COVID-19.     

Is small hydropower beautiful? Social impacts of river fragmentation in China’s Red River Basin

Small hydropower (SHP) is promoted as a pro-poor renewable energy source that does not have the negative social impacts of large dams. This article challenges these claims, using data from a household survey in China’s upper Red River Basin. We find that SHP can fragment river systems in ways that reduce irrigation water availability, provoke changes to agricultural practices, and negatively impact river health. These social impacts of river fragmentation mainly occur in villages situated between a plant’s intake and outflow. The frequency of plant water diversions due to continued generation in the dry season significantly predicts all social impacts; installed capacity of the plant and the quality of the village’s irrigation infrastructure predict some impacts. Villages with strong local governance can negotiate with the plant to temporarily halt generation when irrigation water is needed, lessening social impacts. Our findings reveal that SHP plants are not as benign as they are made out to be; they must be built and managed according to community needs.     

Application of social network theory to prioritizing Oil & Gas industries protection in a networked critical infrastructure system

As a typical process industry, the Oil & Gas industries play a key role within a networked critical infrastructure system in terms of their interconnection and interdependency. While the tight coupling of infrastructures increases the efficiency of infrastructure operations, interdependency between infrastructures may cause cascading failure of infrastructures. The interdependency between critical infrastructures gives rise to an infrastructure network. In this paper, we apply social network analysis, an analytical tool used by social scientists, to study human interactions and to analyze characteristics of the critical infrastructure network. We identify Oil & Gas, Information & Communication Technologies (ICT), and Electricity as three infrastructures that are most relied upon by other infrastructures, thus these may cause the greatest cascading failure of the infrastructures. Among the three, we further determine that Oil & Gas and Electricity are the more vulnerable infrastructures. As a result, priority toward critical infrastructure protection should be given to the Oil & Gas and Electricity infrastructures since they are most relied upon but at the same time depend more on other infrastructures.     

The effect of intergroup comparison on willingness to perform sustainable behavior

The present research examines the effects of intergroup comparison on willingness to perform sustainable behavior. In Experiment 1, university students compared current students with past or future students, and then completed measures of willingness to perform sustainable behavior. Participants who compared to past students reported more willingness to perform sustainable behavior than those who compared to future students. In Experiment 2, university students again compared current students with past or future students and completed measures of sustainable beliefs and willingness to perform sustainable behavior. Participants who compared to past students reported more willingness to perform sustainable behavior than those who compared to future students. This effect was mediated by strengthened sustainable beliefs. The results show that intergroup comparison can be strategically employed to promote motivation to perform sustainable behavior.     

The role of media exposure, social exposure and biospheric value orientation in the environmental attitude-intention-behavior model in adolescents

This paper explores the hypothesis that contextual environments (media exposure and social exposure) and biospheric value orientation are important antecedents to the attitude-intention-behavior model ( [Ajzen, 2001] and [Ajzen, 2002] ) in the context of environmental psychology. Data for this investigation were obtained from a random sample of 2106 (1073 males and 1025 females) high school students in Hong Kong. A path analysis demonstrates that adolescents’ social exposure and media exposure are associated with biospheric value orientation. The biosperhic value orientation is found to mediate between the contextual variables (media exposure and social exposure) and environmental attitude. This environmental attitude, in turn, mediates the relationship between this value orientation and behavioral intention to act environmentally. Results show that both adolescents’ behavioral intention and degree of social exposure are associated with their environmental behavior. Overall, this article provides empirical support for the proposed path model. The article concludes by presenting theoretical and practical implications for future research in environmental psychology.     

Experts’ attitudes towards CCS technologies in Spain

This paper presents the results from a survey on experts’ attitudes towards the development of CCS technologies in Spain. This is the first study carried out in Spain intending to report an empirical analysis of stakeholder perceptions on the risks, challenges and barriers facing CCS deployment. Results show a positive attitude towards CCS implementation in Spain. Experts are concerned about the suitability of storage sites, safety and capture costs. They tend to support CCS as a bridging solution to climate change, and have a general low level of perceived risk from CCS. Experts’ risk perception is influenced, to some extent, by general values and beliefs as well as by sociodemographics and, to a lesser extent, by group membership.     

肾移植患者社会支持对其心理健康影响的研究进展

综述了影响肾移植患者心理健康的原因以及社会支持与心理健康的相关性,并探讨通过社会支持提高肾移植患者心理健康水平的途径.从而提示护理工作者在工作中应尽可能调动肾移植患者本人、家庭成员及社会的主观能动性,以提高肾移植患者的心理健康水平.     

Socioeconomic evaluation of the impact of natural resource stressors on human-use services in the Great Lakes environment: A Lake Michigan case study

The Great Lakes watershed is home to over 40 million people (Canadian and U.S.) who depend on a healthy Great Lakes ecosystem for economic, societal, and personal vitality. The challenge to policymakers and the public is to balance economic benefits with the need to conserve and replenish regional natural resources in a manner that ensures long term prosperity. Nine critical broad-spectrum stressors of ecological services are identified, which include pollution and contamination, agricultural erosion, non-native species, degraded recreational resources, loss of wetlands habitat, climate change, risk of clean water shortage, vanishing sand dunes, and population overcrowding. Many of these stressors overlap. For example, mining activities alone can create stress in at least five of these categories. The focus groups were conducted to examine the public’s awareness of, concern with, and willingness to expend resources on these stressors. This helped generate a grouping of stressors that the public is especially concerned about, those they care little about, and everything else in between. Stressors that the respondents have direct contact with tend to be the most important to them. This approach of using focus groups is a critical first step in helping natural resource managers such as Trustees and NGOs understand what subsequent steps to take and develop policy measures that are of most interest and value to the public. Skipping or glossing over this key first task could lead to difficulties with respect to survey design and model development in a non-market valuation study. The focus group results show that concern related to pollution and contamination is much higher than for any of the others. It is thus clear that outreach programs may be necessary to educate the public about the severity of some low-ranked stressors including climate change.     

Socially induced delayed primiparity in brown bears Ursus arctos

Reproductive suppression through behavioral or physiological means is common in group-living and cooperative breeding mammals, but to our knowledge it has not been shown in wild large carnivores other than those with a clear form of social organization. Brown bear (Ursus arctos) females form matrilinear assemblages with related females using a common and largely exclusive area. Behavioral reproductive suppression might develop due to a hierarchical system among females within a matrilinear assemblage or due to inbreeding avoidance, because male brown bears can overlap with their daughters. We tested whether natal dispersal influenced the age of primiparity. We predicted that emigrant females, geographically removed from maternal or paternal influence, would reproduce earlier than philopatric females. The average age of primiparity was 4.3 years in females that dispersed outside their mother’s home range (n=8) and 5.2 years in philopatric females (n=10). Only the overlap with the mother’s home range, and not body size, body mass, growth, local population density, or overlap with the father’s home range, had a significant influence on the age of primiparity. The ultimate role of reproductive suppression for brown bears is likely to avoid inbreeding or to minimize resource competition. Due to the low risk of inbreeding and frequent exposure of young females to unrelated males, we conclude that resource competition within female hierarchies causes reproductive suppression in young females.