Sustainable planning for a coastal wetland system with an integrated ANP and DPSIR model for conflict resolution

Wetlands are important ecosystems on earth due to their capability of preserving water sources, mediating flooding, providing habitats for wildlife, and stabilizing coastlines. Wetlands play a critical role in regional sustainable development because of their ability to enhance resilience against extreme weather events. Maintaining coastal sustainability requires consideration of both the health of coastal wetlands and the resilience of urban systems while mitigating the conflict among social, economic, and environmental goals in land usages around coastal wetland environment. This study investigates a sensitive coastal wetland system located at central Taiwan for demonstration of a sustainable planning practice with an integrated model based on network topology in a socio-ecological context. There are two parts of the integrated model. Whereas a Driving force–Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) model helps delineate the complex behaviors among different stakeholders by identifying various indicators, the analytic network process (ANP) quantifies the network topology of DPSIR. According to the survey via questionnaires answered by a group of experts, the DPSIR model is composed of 32 major indicators that can be networked by ANP. The results reveal that an effective ecological conservation depends on a series of mitigation actions, including river and habitat restorations, pollution control, green tourism, and integrated community development via better zoning policies.     

Social and economic policy issues relevant to marine aquaculture

This paper presents a critical review of current social, economic and policy issues relevant to marine aquaculture (mariculture) in Europe. Tools for identifying the full range of social, economic and environmental issues that influence the sustainable development of mariculture are examined. Under present sectoral approaches to policy, investment, development planning and natural resources management, these issues continue to be treated in isolation. The four main challenges presented in this paper are: (i) how to create a more objective information base with which to assess the social, economic and environmental factors that condition the sustainability of mariculture; (ii) how to provide information from different disciplines in an easy to obtain and compatible format; (iii) how to better integrate knowledge and skills from different disciplines to create a holistic and robust framework for assessing options for mariculture development that integrates social, economic and environmental parameters; and (iv) the effective integration of these assessments into the formulation of policy, investment strategies, spatial plans and natural resources management for coastal areas. Specific issues that need to be addressed within the framework for the integrated evaluation of the economic, social and environmental parameters governing the sustainable development of mariculture include: ? development of more accurate information on the economic, social and environmental benefits and costs of well‐planned and managed mariculture; ? clearer definition of gaps in existing knowledge on factors critical to the sustainable and equitable development of mariculture; ? development of pro‐active consideration of the coastal land and water resource requirements of mariculture as part of strategic economic planning, spatial planning and natural resources management; ? the need for more equitable treatment of mariculture regarding rights of access to sites for development and use of resources; ? development of awareness among decision‐makers, planners, and managers from different sectoral agencies of the contribution that mariculture may make in promoting the sustainable use of coastal ecosystems; ? promotion of a shift in emphasis away from controlling the end use of resources and toward a more balanced approach to coastal development where emphasis is also given to maintaining the health and productivity of coastal ecosystems and the resources they generate that sustain different forms of activity, including mariculture.     

Sustainability of Nile tilapia net-cage culture in a reservoir in a semi-arid region

Among the tools used to measure sustainability in aquaculture, sets of indicators allow a holistic view of a system in its social, environmental, and economic dimensions. Approaches that align indicators with models such as the Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework can improve understanding of this sustainability. This study evaluated the sustainability of cage production systems for Nile tilapia in the Santa Cruz Reservoir, to determine whether a set of indicators used with the DPSIR conceptual model was effective to study the sustainability of the system. The 49 indicators used were calculated from information obtained from questionnaires and from monitoring the production system. Sustainability was also modeled and compared with hypothetical scenarios, with different fish stocking densities. The results indicated that the production system is economically feasible, generating profit and distributing income. However, the income generated benefits few people and is not fixed in the community. Environmentally speaking, the system is highly dependent on inputs, especially the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, and energy, as well as increasing sedimentation of nutrients in the reservoir. In the social dimension, the venture employs few workers. The modeling showed that the system is potentially sustainable, and that changes in stocking density decreased this sustainability. In summary, the system showed many sustainable features, whereas some others need to be modified to improve the general sustainability.     

Oceans and Human Health (OHH): a European Perspective from the Marine Board of the European Science Foundation (Marine Board-ESF)

The oceans and coastal seas provide mankind with many benefits including food for around a third of the global population, the air that we breathe and our climate system which enables habitation of much of the planet. However, the converse is that generation of natural events (such as hurricanes, severe storms and tsunamis) can have devastating impacts on coastal populations, while pollution of the seas by pathogens and toxic waste can cause illness and death in humans and animals. Harmful effects from biogenic toxins produced by algal blooms (HABs) and from the pathogens associated with microbial pollution are also a health hazard in seafood and from direct contact with water. The overall global burden of human disease caused by sewage pollution of coastal waters has been estimated at 4 million lost person-years annually. Finally, the impacts of all of these issues will be exacerbated by climate change. A holistic systems approach is needed. It must consider whole ecosystems, and their sustainability, such as integrated coastal zone management, is necessary to address the highly interconnected scientific challenges of increased human population pressure, pollution and over-exploitation of food (and other) resources as drivers of adverse ecological, social and economic impacts. There is also an urgent and critical requirement for effective and integrated public health solutions to be developed through the formulation of politically and environmentally meaningful policies. The research community required to address “Oceans & Human Health” in Europe is currently very fragmented, and recognition by policy makers of some of the problems, outlined in the list of challenges above, is limited. Nevertheless, relevant key policy issues for governments worldwide include the reduction of the burden of disease (including the early detection of emerging pathogens and other threats) and improving the quality of the global environment. Failure to effectively address these issues will impact adversely on efforts to alleviate poverty, sustain the availability of environmental goods and services and improve health and social and economic stability; and thus, will impinge on many policy decisions, both nationally and internationally. Knowledge exchange (KE) will be a key element of any ensuing research. KE will facilitate the integration of biological, medical, epidemiological, social and economic disciplines, as well as the emergence of synergies between seemingly unconnected areas of science and socio-economic issues, and will help to leverage knowledge transfer across the European Union (EU) and beyond. An integrated interdisciplinary systems approach is an effective way to bring together the appropriate groups of scientists, social scientists, economists, industry and other stakeholders with the policy formulators in order to address the complexities of interfacial problems in the area of environment and human health. The Marine Board of the European Science Foundation Working Group on “Oceans and Human Health” has been charged with developing a position paper on this topic with a view to identifying the scientific, social and economic challenges and making recommendations to the EU on policy-relevant research and development activities in this arena. This paper includes the background to health-related issues linked to the coastal environment and highlights the main arguments for an ecosystem-based whole systems approach.     

Empirical evaluation of sustainability of divergent farms in the dryland farming systems of India

The present study argues that there are heterogeneous farm systems within the drylands and each farm system is unique in terms of its livelihood asset and agricultural practice, and therefore in sustainability. Our method is based on household survey data collected from 500 farmers in Anantapur and Kurnool Districts, in Andhra Pradesh State of India, in 2013. We carried out principal component analysis (PCA) with subsequent hierarchical clustering methods to build farm typologies. To evaluate sustainability across these farm typologies, we adopted a framework consisting of economic, social and environmental sustainability pillars and associated indicators. We normalized values of target indicators and employed normative approach to assign different weights to these indicators. Composite sustainability indices (CSI) were then estimated by means of weighted sum of indicators, aggregated and integrated into farm typologies. The results suggested that there were five distinct farm typologies representing farming systems in the study area. The majority of farms (>70%) in the study area are small and extensive (typology 1); marginal and off farm based (typology 2). About 20% of the farms are irrigation based and intensive (typology 3); small and medium and off farm based (typology 4) and irrigation based semi-intensive (typology 5). There was apparent variability among farm typologies in terms of farm structure and functions and composite sustainability indices. Farm typologies 3 and 5 showed significantly higher performances for the social and economic indices, while typologies 2 and 4 had relatively stronger values for environment. These discrepancies support the relevance of integrated farm typology- and CSI approaches in assessing system sustainability and targeting technologies. Universally, for all farm typologies, composite sustainability indices for economic pillar was significantly lower than the social and environment pillars. More than 90% of farmers were in economically less-sustainable class. The correlations between sustainability indices for economic and environment were typology specific. It was strong and positive when aggregated for the whole study systems [all samples (r = 0.183; P < 0.001)] and for agriculture dependent farm typologies (e.g. typologies 1 and 3). This suggests the need to elevate farms economic performance and capacitate them to invest in the environment. These results provide information for policy makers to plan farm typology–context technological interventions and also create baseline information to evaluate sustainability performance in terms of progress made over time.     

Restructuring and Health in Canadian Coastal Communities

Environmental and socioeconomic restructuring has had profound consequences for coastal communities in Canada. The decline of traditional resource-based industries—fisheries, forestry, and mining—and the emergence of new economic activities, such as tourism and aquaculture, compounded by concurrent shifts in social programs, have affected the health of environments, communities, and people. Drawing on research conducted as part of the interdisciplinary major collaborative research initiative Coasts Under Stress, we examined the implications of interactive restructuring for the health of people and communities on Canada’s east and west coasts. The research is guided by a socioecological framework that identifies the pathways from interactive restructuring through health determinants to health risks and health outcomes. The utility of the proposed framework is exemplified by a specific place-based example in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and a case-based example from coastal communities in Newfoundland and Labrador. A focus on interactive restructuring draws our attention to the many challenges associated with promoting health in a context of rapid and often accelerating environmental and institutional change that is relevant to other areas and contexts.     

生态系统健康研究的一些基本问题探讨

目前有关生态系统健康研究的一些基本问题尚未达成共识。本文分析了健康、系统与生态系统3个与生态系统健康关联的概念,在此基础上,对生态系统健康的概念及其内涵、研究价值、研究的内容框架、研究的合理尺度以及生态系统质量诊断与质量等级评价进行了探讨。指出生态学上的生态系统是系统科学意义上系统的一类,整体性、稳定性和可持续性是生态系统的重要特征,生态系统健康可通过它的充分必要条件给出,即具备良好的整体性,能够维持较高的稳定性,并能实现良好的可持续性。生态系统质量标准分为质量诊断标准和质量等级评价标准,质量诊断是一种是与非的事实判断,而质量等级评价是一种价值判断。生态系统质量等级评价指标可分为限制可比型和非限制可比型两类。生态系统的复杂性决定了生态系统健康研究须借助于系统科学和非线性科学的理论与方法,生态系统病变的滞后性决定了生态系统健康研究必须加强生态系统质量预测与预警,而生态系统健康的跨学科性决定了生态系统健康研究需要生态学、环境学、医学、社会学以及经济学等领域研究人员的广泛合作。     

可持续框架下的城市低碳社区

城市碳排放引发的气候问题日益严峻。作为低碳城市的重要组成单元和载体,低碳社区的规划建设逐渐成为研究重点。基于低碳社区的概念和内涵,提出了可持续框架下低碳社区的规划理念,引导低碳社区在经济、社会、环境协同发展的基础上实现碳减排目标。通过分析中外城市低碳社区的实践经验,将低碳社区规划总结为创新型规划、资源型规划和学习型规划三种模式,提出可持续框架下的低碳社区规划策略:制定可持续的发展目标及规划;政府主导与社区共建相结合;多尺度规划和多举措建设相匹配。建议加强对既有社区的低碳改造研究;完善低碳社区建设的评价标准与考核机制;加强对低碳社区运行的内在机制研究。对可持续框架下低碳社区的发展理念和规划策略研究,探索城市尺度可持续发展途径,实现低碳城市转型具有重要意义。     

可持续生态学

可持续生态学系用生态学原理和方法解决自然与社会经济协调发展问题,或者说生态学不断将人类及其社会经济活动纳入研究范畴而形成的自然科学与社会科学的交叉学科。40年来,我国在可持续生态学研究和实践领域取得了丰硕的成果,一是提出了"社会-经济-自然"复合生态系统理论;二是构建了适应中国国情的可持续发展评价指标体系;三是推进实施了国家可持续发展战略,并在不同时空尺度进行了试点示范;四是将可持续发展的区域生态安全格局和生态风险管理理论与方法应用于城市与区域发展规划中,并利用生态补偿机制推进跨域的生态安全格局建设;五是为国家生态文明建设规划纲要的出台提供了重要的科学支撑,有力地推进了生态文明建设战略的实施;六是系统地研究了全球气候变化对中国生态系统的影响,科学评估了气候变化的现状、趋势及其影响,提出了气候变化的生态适应对策;七是不断推进国家和地方层面的生态省、生态市、生态县建设,创建了不同层次和规模的可持续发展实验区、国家可持续发展议程创新示范区、生态农业试点示范县、生态工业示范园区等。本文从宏观生态学与可持续发展、生态城市与可持续发展、生态产业与可持续发展三个方面评述可持续性生态学的研究进展。可持续生态学的重点研究内容随着时代发展而不断更新,生态文明建设、生态安全格局构建、落实联合国2030可持续发展目标、应对全球环境变化、新型城市化和工业化对生态系统的影响等是当前和未来一段时间的研究热点。     

实现城市可持续发展的系统转型

城市在为人类提供各种生态系统服务的同时,其发展中的各类问题限制着城市生态系统本身的可持续发展。首先概述了城市发展过程中面临的挑战,主要包括城市化过程中人与自然的关系问题及社会生态问题等;其次从可持续发展的内涵、社会-经济-自然复合生态系统和驱动力-压力-状态-影响-响应(DPSIR)的理论出发,分别从城市水供给和污水处置系统、消减城市废弃物排放、城市交通和区域规划、城市发展与粮食系统供求关系、城市清洁能源系统等5个方面对如何实现城市的转型进行了系统的论述。结合我国城市可持续发展的研究进展,指出城市的可持续发展问题不仅是城市自身的问题,也是城市与周边区域的协调发展问题。为此,文章提出必须基于五个"转向"来研究和建立城市化与区域生态的耦合和协调机制。     

Ecosystem Approaches to Health for a Global Sustainability Agenda

International research agendas are placing greater emphasis on the need for more sustainable development to achieve gains in global health. Research using ecosystem approaches to health, and the wider field of ecohealth, contribute to this goal, by addressing health in the context of inter-linked social and ecological systems. We review recent contributions to conceptual development of ecosystem approaches to health, with insights from their application in international development research. Various similar frameworks have emerged to apply the approach. Most predicate integration across disciplines and sectors, stakeholder participation, and an articulation of sustainability and equity to achieve relevant actions for change. Drawing on several frameworks and on case studies, a model process for application of ecosystem approaches is proposed, consisting of an iterative cycles of participatory study design, knowledge generation, intervention, and systematization of knowledge. The benefits of the research approach include innovations that improve health, evidence-based policies that reduce health risks; empowerment of marginalized groups through knowledge gained, and more effective engagement of decision makers. With improved tools to describe environmental and economic dimensions, and explicit strategies for scaling-up the use and application of research results, the field of ecohealth will help integrate both improved health and sustainability into the development agenda.     

Sustainability criteria and indicators of bioenergy systems from steering,research and Finnish bioenergy business operators’ perspectives

This paper addresses the interface of steering, research, and business operators’ perspectives to bioenergy sustainability. Although bioenergy business operators are essential for sustainable development of bioenergy systems through implementation of sustainability criteria, their perspective to sustainability is rarely studied. We systematically studied the relevant sustainability criteria and indicators from the three perspectives in different stages of a general bioenergy life cycle and in different sustainability dimensions, and evaluated bioenergy operators’ sustainability principles, criteria and indicators simultaneously with respect to the steering and research data and a business sustainability maturity framework. We collected data from literature and a workshop for Finnish bioenergy experts. The results show a similar division of steering and operators’ sustainability criteria and indicators to life cycle stages and sustainability dimensions with a slight emphasis on business economic sustainability from operators’ perspective. The acceptability principle could provide bioenergy operators a meaningful way of identifying the role of sustainability criteria and indicators from steering and research sources in advancing their business sustainability maturity.     

An Index of Regional Sustainability: A GIS-based multiple criteria analysis decision support system for progressing sustainability

GIS (Geographical Information Systems) based decision support tools will be useful in helping guide regions to sustainability. These tools need to be simple but effective at identifying, for regional managers, areas most in need of initiatives to progress sustainability. Multiple criteria analysis (MCA) has been used as a decision support tool for a wide number of applications, as it provides a systematic framework for evaluating various options. It has the potential to be used as a tool for sustainability assessment, because it can bring together the sustainability criteria from all pillars, social, economic and environmental, to give an integrated assessment of sustainability. Furthermore, the use of GIS and MCA together is an emerging addition to conducting sustainability assessments.This paper further develops a sustainability assessment framework developed for the Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority region of Victoria, Australia by providing a GIS-based decision support system for regional agencies. This tool uses multiple criteria analysis in a GIS framework to assess the sustainability of sub-catchments in the Glenelg Hopkins Catchment. The multiple criteria analysis based on economic, social and environmental indicators developed in previous stages of this project was used as the basis to build a model in ArcGIS^®. The GIS-based multiple criteria analysis, called An Index of Regional Sustainability Spatial Decision Support System (AIRS SDSS), produced maps showing sub-catchment sustainability, and environmental, social and economic condition. As a result, this tool is able to highlight those sub-catchments most in need of assistance with achieving sustainability. It will also be a valuable tool for evaluation and monitoring of strategies for sustainability. This paper shows the usefulness of GIS-based multiple criteria analysis to enhance the monitoring and evaluation of sustainability at the regional to sub-catchment scale.     

Transforming Global Health with Mobile Technologies and Social Enterprises: Global Health and Innovation Conference

More than 2,000 people convened for the ninth annual Global Health and Innovation Conference at Yale University on April 21-22, 2012. Participants discussed the latest innovations, ideas in development, lessons learned, opportunities and challenges in global health activities. Several themes emerged, including the important role of frontline workers, strengthening health systems, leveraging social media, and sustainable and impact-driven philanthropy. Overall, the major outcome of the conference was the increased awareness of the potential of mobile technologies and social enterprises in transforming global health. Experts warned that donations and technological advances alone will not transform global health unless there are strong functioning health infrastructures and improved workforce. It was noted that there is a critical need for an integrated systems approach to global health problems and a need for scaling up promising pilot projects. Lack of funding, accountability, and sustainability were identified as major challenges in global health.     

Advancing understanding of the complex nature of urban systems

Cities and urbanized regions are complex, dynamic, and highly integrated systems linking social, ecological, and technical infrastructure domains in ways that create deep challenges for good governance, policymaking, and planning. The combination of impacts from climate change in cities, air pollution, rapid population growth, multiple sources of development pressure and overall urban system complexity make it difficult for decision-makers to develop and guide development trajectories along more livable, equitable, and at the same time, more resilient pathways. Advancing urban sustainability and resilience agendas requires expanding the scope of inter- and trans-disciplinarity approaches, moving beyond the historically separate social–ecological and socio-technical approaches to jointly study social–ecological–technical infrastructure systems in cities. We take urban complexity as a given and suggest that in both research and practice we need to better capture and understand feedbacks, interdependencies, and non-linearities which create uncertainties and challenge the efficacy of governance practices to achieve normative goals for society. Here, we explore new methods, tools, and approaches to advance our understanding of urban system complexity through a series of journal special issue articles that examine urban structure–function relationships, urban sustainability transitions, green space availability, social–ecological memory, functional traits, and urban land use scenarios.     

Integration of system dynamics approach toward deepening and broadening the life cycle sustainability assessment framework: a case for electric vehicles

Purpose

Quantitative life cycle sustainable assessment requires a complex and multidimensional understanding, which cannot be fully covered by the current portfolio of reductionist-oriented tools. Therefore, there is a dire need on a new generation of modeling tools and approaches that can quantitatively assess the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainability in an integrated way. To this end, this research aims to present a practical and novel approach for (1) broadening the existing life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) framework by considering macrolevel environmental, economic, and social impacts (termed as the triple bottom line), simultaneously, (2) deepening the existing LCSA framework by capturing the complex dynamic relationships between social, environmental, and economic indicators through causal loop modeling, (3) understanding the dynamic complexity of transportation sustainability for the triple bottom line impacts of alternative vehicles, and finally (4) investigating the impacts of various vehicle-specific scenarios as a novel approach for selection of a macrolevel functional unit considering all of the complex interactions in the environmental, social, and economic aspects.

Methods

To alleviate these research objectives, we presented a novel methodology to quantify macrolevel social, economic, and environmental impacts of passenger vehicles from an integrated system analysis perspective. An integrated dynamic LCSA model is utilized to analyze the environmental, economic, and social life cycle impact as well as life cycle cost of alternative vehicles in the USA. System dynamics modeling is developed to simulate the US passenger transportation system and its interactions with economy, the environment, and society. Analysis covers manufacturing and operation phase impacts of internal combustion vehicles (ICVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and battery electric vehicles (BEVs). In total, seven macrolevel indicators are selected; global warming potential, particulate matter formation, photochemical oxidant formation, vehicle ownership cost, contribution to gross domestic product, employment generation, and human health impacts. Additionally, contribution of vehicle choices to global atmospheric temperature rise and public welfare is investigated.

Results and discussion

BEVs are found to be a better alternative for most of sustainability impact categories. While some of the benefits such as contribution to employment and GDP, CO₂ emission reduction potential of BEVs become greater toward 2050, other sustainability indicators including vehicle ownership cost and human health impacts of BEVs are higher than the other vehicle types on 2010s and 2020s. While the impact shares of manufacturing and operation phases are similar in the early years of 2010s, the contribution of manufacturing phase becomes higher as the vehicle performances increase toward 2050. Analysis results revealed that the US transportation sector, alone, cannot reduce the rapidly increasing atmospheric temperature and the negative impacts of the global climate change, even though the entire fleet is replaced with BEVs. Reducing the atmospheric climate change requires much more ambitious targets and international collaborative efforts. The use of different vehicle types has a small impact on public welfare, which is a function of income, education, and life expectancy indexes.

Conclusions

The authors strongly recommend that the dynamic complex and mutual interactions between sustainability indicators should be considered for the future LCSA framework. This approach will be critical to deepen the existing LCSA framework and to go beyond the current LCSA understanding, which provide a snapshot analysis with an isolated view of all pillars of sustainability. Overall, this research is a first empirical study and an important attempt toward developing integrated and dynamic LCSA framework for sustainable transportation research.

     

基于文化与政治生态学的社会生态系统演进机制研究 ——以杭州与西湖为例

科学认识社会生态系统演进机制是对其进行有效管理的重要基础。以文化与政治生态学为理论基础,提出适合杭州—西湖社会生态系统的综合研究框架,识别了杭州—西湖社会生态系统的5个演进阶段,并分析出系统演进中的3种潜在状态。自然、政治、经济以及社会驱动力是影响杭州—西湖社会生态系统的主导因素,人类行为影响整个生态系统中扰动的频率、大小和形式并改变西湖生态系统的结构与功能,进而影响西湖为城市提供生态系统服务的潜能。在不同历史时期,基于自然、社会、经济、文化等多层面的需求,西湖在不同系统状态下为城市供给不同类别和质量的生态系统服务,总体而言供给与调节服务比例逐渐下降,文化服务逐渐上升,并且后者逐步成为最主要的生态系统服务类别。杭州与西湖在长期的互馈共生中建立了社会生态系统的自适应性调节机制,其背后的生态智慧可为现代风景园林规划提供重要启示。     

Complexity and Human Health: The Case for a Transdisciplinary Paradigm

Transdisciplinary thinking is an emerging philosophy underpinning health social science. We advance a definition of transdisciplinary thinking and link it with complexity theory. Complexity theory's concern with non-linear relationships, interactive causality and emergent properties of systems compels researchers to adopt a transdisciplinary perspective. We construct a generic framework for analyzing health processes from diverse disciplines and apply it to coronary heart disease in the Australian Coalfields. Insights from this analysis support our argument that transdisciplinary thinking maximizes understanding of the complexity of human health.