Framing Water Sustainability among Phoenix Homeowner Associations

Sustainability is defined as the practice of protecting natural resources for future use without harming the nature. Sustainable development includes the environmental, social, political, and economic issues faced by human being for existence. Water is the most vital resource for living being on this earth. The natural resources are being exploited with the increase in world population and shortfall of these resources may threaten humanity in the future. Water sustainability is a part of environmental sustainability. The water crisis is increasing gradually in many places of the world due to agricultural and industrial usage and rapid urbanization. Data mining tools and techniques provide a powerful methodology to understand water sustainability issues using rich environmental data and also helps in building models for possible optimization and reengineering. In this research work, a review on usage of supervised or unsupervised learning algorithms in water sustainability issues like water quality assessment, waste water collection system and water consumption is presented. Advanced technologies have also helped to resolve major water sustainability issues. Some major data mining optimization algorithms have been compared which are used in piped water distribution networks.

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Evaluation of Virtual Water and Water Sustainability of Dairy Production in Trentino Alto Adige (North-Eastern Italy)

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani11041047 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 1047

Author(s):

Pier Paolo Miglietta ◽

Federica De Leo ◽

Benedetta Coluccia ◽

Yari Vecchio ◽

Fabian Capitanio

Keyword(s):

Water Availability ◽

Dairy Products ◽

Virtual Water ◽

Resource Depletion ◽

Small Scale ◽

Dairy Production ◽

Water Sustainability ◽

Freshwater Resource ◽

Total Turnover ◽

Protected Designations Of Origin

Dairy products play a significant role in the human diet, but they are often associated with high freshwater resource depletion. In Italy, the dairy sector represents more than 12% of the total turnover of the agri-food sector. Trentino Alto Adige is the first Italian region in terms of number of dairy farms, but it does not register a quantitatively consistent dairy production. Notwithstanding, it is characterized mostly by small-scale farms whose strengths are the Protected Designations of Origin and typical mountain productions. The present study aims at: (i) accounting for the virtual water VW of the main dairy products (milk, butter and cheese) produced in Trentino Alto Adige; (ii) estimating the renewable water resources based on the water flow assessment of the study area; (iii) assessing water sustainability comparing the virtual water consumption of the dairy sector at a regional level to the water availability. The findings show that the consumptive virtual water related to dairy production represents about 1% of the water availability in Trentino Alto Adige. Italy’s domestic dairy production is expanding to meet the growing demand, but the expansion of dairy farming in water-stressed regions should be avoided, preferring instead suitable mountain regions where small-scale farms represent a lively entrepreneurial substrate.

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Cyber-Physical System (CPS) architecture for real-time water sustainability management in manufacturing industry

Procedia CIRP ◽

10.1016/j.procir.2021.03.074 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 99 ◽

pp. 543-548

Author(s):

Xinyue Cui

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Physical System ◽

Manufacturing Industry ◽

Cyber Physical System ◽

Water Sustainability ◽

Sustainability Management

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Participatory Representation in a Non-Western Context: The Case of Homeowner Associations in Beijing

Urban Affairs Review ◽

10.1177/1078087420919504 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 107808742091950

Author(s):

Ting Guan ◽

Tao Liu

Keyword(s):

Regression Analysis ◽

Organizational Context ◽

Substantive Representation ◽

Neighborhood Problems ◽

Homeowner Associations ◽

Transitional Society ◽

Representational Capacity ◽

Participatory Engagement ◽

Neighborhood Level

This article examines the concept and practices of “participatory representation” in the Chinese context, a subset of substantive representation that emphasizes “authenticity” and participatory engagement in solving neighborhood problems. Through examining Chinese homeowner associations (HOAs), we explain how representation operates at the neighborhood level in a grassroots organizational context without a Western style of democracy, identifying the determinants and capacities of participatory representation. By proposing a model of representational capacity and using logistic regression analysis, we find that four factors have an impact on the quality of participatory representation: (1) homeowner attributes (i.e., gender, occupation, and length of residence), (2) problem-solving effectiveness of representative organizations, (3) transparent and open elections, and (4) level of homeowner participation. We further suggest that in a transitional society like China, these representative organizations, namely, HOAs, act as important training grounds for democratic skills, through which participatory citizen engagement is being learned and cultivated. This study contributes to contemporary accounts of participatory representation by identifying the informal representation patterns within HOAs and their potential to foster civic participation and social democracy in China in the coming decades.

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