scholarly journals Systematic Mapping of Research on Farm-Level Sustainability in Finfish Aquaculture

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 9985
Author(s):  
Stefan Gunnarsson ◽  
Katarina Arvidsson Segerkvist ◽  
Torun Wallgren ◽  
Per Hjelmstedt ◽  
Ulf Sonesson ◽  
...  

The sustainability of future finfish aquaculture needs to be improved to meet global environmental challenges. Global fish aquaculture production has expanded significantly recently, due to the increased demand for fish for human consumption. Therefore, it is important to mitigate challenges to the sustainability of the sector, such as pollution and depletion of natural resources. In this study, we systematically mapped the scientific literature on farm-level sustainability in fish aquaculture. The concept of sustainability was considered holistically, covering its economic, environmental and social dimensions, each consisting of a range of different aspects that may contradict or reinforce each other. Literature published between January 2000 and August 2020 with the geographical focus on Europe, Northern America and Australia–New Zealand was included. The search resulted in a total of 287 hits, but after the exclusion of articles that did not match the scope, only 17 papers remained for the systematic mapping. Of these, five papers covered all three dimensions of sustainability. Economic sustainability was addressed in 10 papers, environmental sustainability in 13 papers and social sustainability in 12 papers. This systematic mapping provides an important foundation for discussions and prioritisations of future actions to increase knowledge on farm-level sustainability in finfish aquaculture.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 3033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Gunnarsson ◽  
Katarina Arvidsson Segerkvist ◽  
Lina Göransson ◽  
Helena Hansson ◽  
Ulf Sonesson

The sustainability of future poultry production needs to be improved in order to meet global challenges. The global chicken population has expanded significantly in recent decades, due to increased human demand for eggs and chicken meat. Therefore, it is critically important to mitigate challenges to the sustainability of modern poultry production, such as pollution, the depletion of finite natural resources and animal welfare issues. This study systematically mapped the scientific literature on farm-level sustainability in egg and chicken meat production. The concept of sustainability was considered holistically, covering its economic, environmental and social dimensions, each consisting of a broad range of different aspects that may contradict or reinforce each other. The literature published between January 2000 and March 2020 with a geographical focus on Europe, North America and Australia–New Zealand, were included. The literature search resulted in a total of 428 hits, but after the exclusion of articles that did not match the scope of the study, only 26 papers remained for the systematic mapping. Of these, only three papers covered all three dimensions of sustainability. Aspects of economic sustainability were addressed in 10 papers, aspects of environmental sustainability in 18 papers, and aspects of social sustainability in 23 papers. The findings in this study are an important foundation for the discussion and prioritisation of future actions to increase knowledge of farm-level sustainability in egg and chicken meat production.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Gunnarsson ◽  
Katarina Arvidsson Segerkvist ◽  
Torun Wallgren ◽  
Helena Hansson ◽  
Ulf Sonesson

We systematically mapped the scientific literature on the sustainability of pig production at farm-level. Sustainability was considered holistically, covering its economic, environmental, and social dimensions, each consisting of a broad range of different aspects that may contradict or reinforce each other. Literature published between January 2000 and March 2020 with a geographical focus on Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand was included. A standard template with predefined keywords was used to summarise aspects of each sustainability dimension covered in identified papers. We found that papers analysing environmental sustainability were more frequent than papers analysing economic or social sustainability. However, there are many different aspects within each dimension of sustainability, hampering comparisons between studies. In addition, each dimension of sustainability has many sides, making it difficult to compare different studies, and different dimensions and aspects may have complex interrelations. Our systematic literature review revealed that these interrelations are not well understood and that possible trade-offs or synergies between different aspects of sustainability dimensions remain unidentified. This systematic mapping of the current literature on farm-level sustainability in pig production can support a more informed discussion on knowledge gaps and help prioritise future research at farm-level to enhance sustainability in pig production.


2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ryan ◽  
T. Hennessy ◽  
C. Buckley ◽  
E.J. Dillon ◽  
T. Donnellan ◽  
...  

Abstract In the context of an expanding, export-dependent agri-food sector, indicators of sustainable development and intensification are necessary to measure, assess and verify the comparative advantage afforded by Ireland’s natural pastoral-based food production systems. Such indicators are also necessary to ensure that we produce more food with less adverse impacts on the Irish environment, climate and society. This article outlines the development of farm-level indicators that refect the multifaceted nature of sustainability, which is encompassed in economic, environmental and social indicators. The role of innovation in farm sustainability was also examined. A comparison of indicators across Irish farm systems showed that dairy farms, followed by tillage farms, tended to be the most economically and socially sustainable farm systems. In relation to greenhouse gas emissions in particular, the top-performing dairy farms, in an economic sense, also tended to be the best-performing farms from an environmental sustainability perspective. This trend was also evident in relation to the adoption of innovative practices on farm, which was found to be strongly correlated with economic performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Brais Carballeira Braña ◽  
Kristine Cerbule ◽  
Paula Senff ◽  
Insa Kristina Stolz

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food production sectors and has great potential for food security and livelihoods. However, it generates concerning consequences for the environment, including chemical and biological pollution, disease outbreaks, unsustainable feeds and competition for coastal space. Recent investigations are focusing on sustainable techniques (e.g., polyculture, offshore facilities) to improve the relationship between the industry, environment and society. This review provides an overview of the main factors of ecological concern within marine finfish aquaculture, their interactions with the environment, and highlights sustainable alternatives that are currently in use or development. Adequate environmental monitoring and location of farms, the reduction and exploitation of wastes and chemicals being used is crucial to ensure the growth and continuity of aquaculture production.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lochana Poudyal ◽  
Kushal Adhikari ◽  
Moon Won

Despite lower environmental impacts, the use of Portland Limestone Cement (PLC) concrete has been limited due to its reduced later age strength and compromised durability properties. This research evaluates the effects of nano calcium carbonate (CaCO3) on the performance of PLC concrete. The study follows a series of experiments on the fresh, hardened, and durability properties of PLC concrete with different replacement rates of nano CaCO3. Incorporation of 1% nano CaCO3 into PLC concrete provided the optimal performance, where the 56 days compressive strength was increased by approximately 7%, and the permeability was reduced by approximately 13% as compared to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) concrete. Further, improvements were observed in other durability aspects such as Alkali-Silica Reaction (ASR) and scaling resistance. Additionally, nano CaCO3 has the potential to be produced within the cement plant while utilizing the CO2 emissions from the cement industries. The integration of nanotechnology in PLC concrete thus will help produce a more environment-friendly concrete with enhanced performance. More in-depth study on commercial production of nano CaCO3 thus has the potential to offer a new generation cement—sustainable, economical, and durable cement—leading towards green infrastructure and global environmental sustainability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 5519
Author(s):  
Rui Carvalho ◽  
Alberto Rodrigues da Silva

Sustainable development was defined by the UN in 1987 as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, and this is a core concept in this paper. This work acknowledges the three dimensions of sustainability, i.e., economic, social, and environmental, but its focus is on this last one. A digital twin (DT) is frequently described as a physical entity with a virtual counterpart, and the data, connections between the two, implying the existence of connectors and blocks for efficient and effective data communication. This paper provides a meta systematic literature review (SLR) (i.e., an SLR of SLRs) regarding the sustainability requirements of DT-based systems. Numerous papers on the subject of DT were also selected because they cited the analyzed SLRs and were considered relevant to the purposes of this research. From the selection and analysis of 29 papers, several limitations and challenges were identified: the perceived benefits of DTs are not clearly understood; DTs across the product life cycle or the DT life cycle are not sufficiently studied; it is not clear how DTs can contribute to reducing costs or supporting decision-making; technical implementation of DTs must be improved and better integrated in the context of the IoT; the level of fidelity of DTs is not entirely evaluated in terms of their parameters, accuracy, and level of abstraction; and the ownership of data stored within DTs should be better understood. Furthermore, from our research, it was not possible to find a paper discussing DTs only in regard to environmental sustainability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zongguo Wen ◽  
Yiling Xie ◽  
Muhan Chen ◽  
Christian Doh Dinga

AbstractSince the late 1990s, the trend of plastic waste shipment from developed to developing countries has been increasing. In 2017, China announced an unprecedented ban on its import of most plastic waste, resulting in a sharp decline in global plastic waste trade flow and changes in the treatment structure of countries, whose impacts on global environmental sustainability are enormous but yet unexamined. Here, through the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, we quantified the environmental impacts of changes in the flow patterns and treatment methods of 6 types of plastic waste in 18 countries subsequent to the ban. In the short term, the ban significantly improved four midpoint indicators of environmental impact, albeit contributed to global warming. An annual saving of about 2.35 billion euros of eco-cost was realized, which is equivalent to 56% of plastic waste global trade value in 2017. To achieve global environmental sustainability in the long run, countries should gradually realize the transition from export to domestic management, and from landfill to recycling, which would realize eco-costs savings of about 1.54–3.20 billion euros.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6034
Author(s):  
Ine Hugaerts ◽  
Jeroen Scheerder ◽  
Kobe Helsen ◽  
Joris Corthouts ◽  
Erik Thibaut ◽  
...  

The United Nations (UN) considers sports as an important enabler of sustainable development. The popular and fast-growing Participatory Sports Event (PSE) sector can play an important role in this regard, however, research that measures and reports sustainability in PSEs is scarce. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to construct and validate a research instrument based on the UN’s sustainable development goals, and to examine sustainability in PSEs. To this end, an online survey was administered among a representative sample of 303 PSE organisers, located in Flanders, Belgium. A confirmatory factor analysis affirmed the social, economic and environmental dimensions of the instrument and provided evidence for its validity and reliability. The results reveal significant discrepancies between the three dimensions, with a noticeable lower score for environmental sustainability compared to social and economic sustainability. Furthermore, challenges are highlighted in the field of the civil society sector and in walking sports events. The findings also indicate that large-sized events are more likely to be sustainable. The current study can act as a foundation for future research on sustainability in PSEs and can assist PSE organisers and policymakers to increase the sustainability-related performance of the sector.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Pekkaya ◽  
Nuh Keleş

PurposeConsidering the contribution of freight villages (FVs) to the economy and sector, transportation cost advantage, environmental externalities, labor costs, employment, etc. criteria evaluation is important in selecting FV location. Environmental sustainability and social dimensions are becoming important criteria for companies in logistics. The purpose of the study is to determine/model the criteria interaction and also determine the criteria priorities in the FV location selection process. Meanwhile, the study aims to evaluate these criteria and present information to researchers and decision makers.Design/methodology/approachSix main criteria and 29 sub-criteria are selected from related literature. Decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method is used for determining/modeling the criteria interaction and sketching interaction diagram, and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is used for determining the criteria priorities. One/two-way pairwise compared main/sub-criteria views are obtained from 48 experts for calculations.Findings“Trade potential”, “transportation networks” and “economic factors” have the highest priorities, respectively, out of six main criteria, and they have the most powerful interactions that put these criteria to the center of decision process. Sub-criteria of “foreign trade potential”, “proximity to the port”, “market opportunities” and “proximity to the railway” out of 29 have a total 36.42% priority, more than one-third of the importance.Originality/valueCriteria are evaluated in FV location selection for FV sustainability using criteria interaction diagrams, affecting/being affected by the level of each criterion and their priorities. This study shows a hybrid derivation from DEMATEL-AHP usage methods together. High-volumed and qualified/experienced expert group judgments in Turkey are evaluated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Requena-i-Mora ◽  
Dan Brockington

At the heart of any colonization project, and therefore any move to de-colonize, are ways of seeing nature and society, that then allow particular ways of governing each. This is plainly visible in a number of tools that exist to measure progress towards (or regress from) environmental sustainability. The tools use indices and indicators constructed mostly by environmental scientists and ecologists. As such, they are not neutral scientific instruments: they reflect the worldviews of their creators. These worldviews depend on three dimensions: the values they prioritize, the explanatory theories they use and the futures they envision. Through these means different tools produce conflicting notions of the sustainability of our economies and societies. In this article, we shed light onto the theoretical and epistemological assumptions that lie behind key international sustainability indices and indicators: the Environmental Performance Index,Domestic Material Consumption, Material Intensity, the Material Footprint, the Carbon Footprint, the Ecological Footprint and CO2 emissions (territorial). The variables included in these indices, the way they are measured, aggregated and weighted all imply a particular way of understanding the relationships between economy, society and environment. This divergence is most clearly visible in the fact that some indices are negatively correlated with each other. Where one index might plot growing environmental sustainability, another shows its decline. Our results highlight that those devices and the theories informing them are particularly interesting for way how colonialism is materialized. Some of these measurements hide the material roots of prosperity and the ecological (and economic) distributional conflicts exported to the poorer countries by the global North, and others show how its production and consumption levels are reliant upon a socio-ecological 'subsidy' imposed on Southern countries. These subsidies represent injustices that present a primafacie case for decolonizing indices and indicators of environmental governance.


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