scholarly journals The Eco-Techno Spectrum: Exploring Knowledge Systems’ Challenges in Green Infrastructure Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Marissa Matsler ◽  
Thaddeus R. Miller ◽  
Peter M. Groffman
Keyword(s):  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Knowledge System ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Standard Procedures ◽  
The Us

Infrastructure crises are not only technical problems for engineers to solve—they also present social, ecological, financial, and political challenges. Addressing infrastructure problems thus requires a robust planning process that includes examination of the social and ecological systems supporting infrastructure, alongside technical systems. An integrative Social, Ecological, and Technological Systems (SETS) analysis of infrastructure solutions can complement the planning process by revealing potential trade-offs that are often overlooked in standard procedures. We explore the interconnected SETS of the infrastructure problem in the US through comparative case studies of green infrastructure (GI) development in Portland and Baltimore. Currently a popular infrastructure solution to a wide variety of urban ills, GI is the use and mimicry of ecological components (e.g., plants) to perform municipal services (e.g., stormwater management). We develop the ecological-technological spectrum—or ‘eco-techno spectrum’—as a framing tool to bridge all three SETS dimensions. The eco-techno spectrum becomes a platform to explore the institutional knowledge system dynamics of GI development where social dimensions are organized across ecological and technological aspects of GI, exposing how governance differs across specific forms of ecological and technological hybridity. In this study, we highlight the knowledge system challenges of urban planning institutions as a key consideration in the realization of innovative infrastructure crisis ‘fixes.’ Disconnected definition and measurement of GI emerge as two distinct challenges across the knowledge systems examined. By revealing and discussing these challenges, we can begin to recognize—and better plan for—gaps in municipal planning knowledge systems, promoting decisions that address the roots of infrastructure crises rather than treating only their symptoms.

scholarly journals Anticipatory Resilience Bringing Back the Future into Urban Planning and Knowledge Systems

2021 ◽  
pp. 159-172
Author(s):  
Tischa A. Muñoz-Erickson ◽  
Kaethe Selkirk ◽  
Robert Hobbins ◽  
Clark Miller ◽  
Mathieu Feagan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Knowledge System ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Future Scenarios ◽  
Critical Component ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Future

AbstractAnticipatory thinking is a critical component in urban planning practices and knowledge systems in an era of unpredictability and conflicting expectations of the future. This chapter introduces “anticipatory resilience” as a futures-oriented knowledge system that intentionally addresses uncertain climate conditions and explores alternative, desirable future states. It suggests a portfolio of tools suitable for building long-term foresight capacity in urban planning. Examples of knowledge systems interventions are presented to explore the trade-offs, constraints, possibilities, and desires of diverse future scenarios co-generated in settings with people that hold different perspectives, knowledge, and expectations.

scholarly journals Hydromorphological and socio-cultural assessment of urban rivers to promote nature-based solutions in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic

AMBIO ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Pradilla ◽  
Georg Lamberty ◽  
Johannes Hamhaber
Keyword(s):  
Dominican Republic ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
River Restoration ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Restoration Planning ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Cultural Assessment

AbstractIn Latin America and the Caribbean, river restoration projects are increasing, but many lack strategic planning and monitoring. We tested the applicability of a rapid visual social–ecological stream assessment method for restoration planning, complemented by a citizen survey on perceptions and uses of blue and green infrastructure. We applied the method at three urban streams in Jarabacoa (Dominican Republic) to identify and prioritize preferred areas for nature-based solutions. The method provides spatially explicit information for strategic river restoration planning, and its efficiency makes it suitable for use in data-poor contexts. It identifies well-preserved, moderately altered, and critically impaired areas regarding their hydromorphological and socio-cultural conditions, as well as demands on green and blue infrastructure. The transferability of the method can be improved by defining reference states for assessing the hydromorphology of tropical rivers, refining socio-cultural parameters to better address river services and widespread urban challenges, and balancing trade-offs between ecological and social restoration goals.

scholarly journals The production of valuable products and fuel from plastic waste in Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Opoku Amankwa ◽  
E. Kweinor Tetteh ◽  
G. Thabang Mohale ◽  
G. Dagba ◽  
P. Opoku
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Road Construction ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Liquid Fuels ◽  
Environmental Costs ◽  
Waste Generation ◽  
Sustainable Environment ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Us ◽  
Shipping Containers

AbstractGlobal plastic waste generation is about 300 million metric tons annually and poses crucial health and environmental problems. Africa is the second most polluted continent in the world, with over 500 shipping containers of waste being imported every month. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report suggests that about 75% of this plastic waste ends up in landfills. However, landfills management is associated with high environmental costs and loss of energy. In addition, landfill leachates end up in water bodies, are very detrimental to human health, and poison marine ecosystems. Therefore, it is imperative to explore eco-friendly techniques to transform plastic waste into valuable products in a sustainable environment. The trade-offs of using plastic waste for road construction and as a component in cementitious composites are discussed. The challenges and benefits of producing liquid fuels from plastic waste are also addressed. The recycling of plastic waste to liquid end-products was found to be a sustainable way of helping the environment with beneficial economic impact.

scholarly journals Tax plan debates in the US presidential election: A dynamic CGE analysis of growth and redistribution trade-offs

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 529-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keshab Bhattarai ◽  
Paul Bachman ◽  
Frank Conte ◽  
Jonathan Haughton ◽  
Michael Head ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
Dynamic Cge

scholarly journals Administrative Traditions – and the Problem of the “Trilemma”

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Noralv Veggeland
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Integration Policy ◽  
European Welfare State ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Us ◽  
Modern Welfare State ◽  
Political Economic

The purpose of this paper is to show that the administration of a modern welfare state is a complex thing. The statemeets the challenge of the “trilemma”. Social policy formation does fundamentally relay on the outcome of the debateabout the future of the European welfare state. From the perspective of the political-economic approach, social policyformation is a dependent variable to both European integration policy and national administrative traditions. However,the national state does not act in a sovereign manner neither in relation to the European Union (EU) nor to domesticmember actors. All of them confronted with a so-called “trilemma” aspect, a term first introduced by the US socialscientist Torben Iversen (2005). In this paper, I follow up his analysis and shows the difficult choices that confrontspolicy-makers on the different administrative levels because of this trilemma and its trade-offs. New PublicManagement ideas are dominant and for the time being confront the other ruling administrative social traditions ofWestern Europe. In this paper, I conclude that a European agreement on a social choice, related to the overcome oftrilemma, must be accomplished to save the welfare state model as we know it. The traditional Nordic welfare statemodel gives an example.

scholarly journals Practice of indigenous knowledge system by the farmers in maintaining ecosystem in Bangladesh

2012 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostafizur Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Knowledge System ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Organizational Participation ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge System ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
High Level ◽  
Moderate User ◽  
Rural Appraisal

The main focus of the study was to identify the indigenous knowledge system being used by the rural men in farming and household activities and also to examine its extent. Data were collected from Poba upazila under Rajshahi district and Gabtoli upazila under Bogra district in Bangladesh from 125 randomly selected rural men out of total population of 1,145 from 15 February to 14 May, 2009. The fifty potential indigenous knowledge systems were identified through participatory rural appraisal prior to finalizing the schedule. The findings reveal that greater proportion of rural men were illiterate, middle aged categories, small farmer category, medium agricultural and environmental knowledge category, high level farming experience, medium cosmopoliteness, medium communication exposure, no organizational participation and moderately favorable category. Among the 50 identified indigenous knowledge systems, ?Setting up bamboo sticks, branches of trees etc., in rice fields to let the birds sit and eat away insects? reached the highest extent of use by the farmers in agricultural practices. ?Soaking boro rice seeds in water for 1-3 days before sowing in the bed for rapid germination?, ?Drying mature bottle gourds (Lagenaria vulgaris) in the sun and storing the seeds inside without rupturing the fruits? and ?Keeping rice seedlings under shed for 1-2 days before transplanting for the purpose of increasing tolerance? took the 2nd, 3rd and 4th position regarding the extent of use. Considering farmers? practicing category, the highest proportion (47.2%) of the respondents belonged to the low user as compared to 39.2% in the moderate user and 13.6% in the high user. Recommendations were forwarded to the extension specialists, researchers and administrators to undertake desk and experimental research concerning indigenous knowledge systems.

scholarly journals Expert-Knowledge Gating Mechanism in the Hierarchical Modular System

2004 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 410-414
Author(s):  
Jeong-Yon Shim ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Acquisition ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Medical Diagnostics ◽  
Knowledge System ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Modular System ◽  
Gating Mechanism ◽  
Knowledge Learning

To maximize the efficiency of knowledge learning, it is essential that the knowledge system itself be well structured. Well designed knowledge systems make easy to access for knowledge acquisition and extraction. Expert knowledge plays a role controlling. We propose a Hierarchical modular system with an expert-knowledge gating mechanism that consists of mechanisms for acquiring knowledge, constructing associative memory and enabling knowledge inference and extraction based on expert-knowledge gating. We applied this to medical diagnostics for classifying Viruses (coxackie, echovirus and cold virus), Rhinitis (Nonallergic and allergic) and tested using symptom data.

scholarly journals Why the Economics Profession Must Actively Participate in the Privacy Protection Debate

2019 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 397-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Abowd ◽  
Ian M. Schmutte ◽  
William N. Sexton ◽  
Lars Vilhuber
Keyword(s):  
Privacy Protection ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Census Bureau ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Public Data ◽  
The Us ◽  
Economics Profession ◽  
Computer Scientists ◽  
Us Census

When Google or the US Census Bureau publishes detailed statistics on browsing habits or neighborhood characteristics, some privacy is lost for everybody while supplying public information. To date, economists have not focused on the privacy loss inherent in data publication. In their stead, these issues have been advanced almost exclusively by computer scientists who are primarily interested in technical problems associated with protecting privacy. Economists should join the discussion, first to determine where to balance privacy protection against data quality--a social choice problem. Furthermore, economists must ensure new privacy models preserve the validity of public data for economic research.

Children’s Maps in GIS

2013 ◽  
pp. 799-814
Author(s):  
Kerstin Nordin ◽  
Ulla Berglund
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Real World ◽  
Spatial Planning ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Comprehensive Planning ◽  
Gis Application ◽  
Standard Procedures ◽  
Ongoing Development ◽  
Children's Participation ◽  
Different Parts

Since 2002 the authors have successively developed “Children’s Maps in GIS”, a method for children’s participation in spatial planning. Their studies show that 10-15 year-olds are capable of reading maps and using a GIS-application for communicating their interests in a stable and useful manner. The purpose of this article is to discuss the first stages of implementation in a real world project, in relation to ICT. The authors report experiences from a Swedish municipality using Children’s Maps in GIS in a survey with over 600 children as part of a comprehensive planning process and give examples of how data can be visualized. A significant digital divide between different parts of the administration is noted. In the ongoing development into an Internet version of the method the authors aim to increase the access to the GIS-application and develop standard procedures for categorizing and analyzing data.

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