scholarly journals Environmental Design Features for Large-Scale Nature-Based Solutions: Development of a Framework That Incorporates Landscape Dynamics into the Design of Nature-Based Solutions

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6123
Author(s):  
Bo-Syuan Wu ◽  
Laddaporn Ruangpan ◽  
Arlex Sanchez ◽  
Marzenna Rasmussen ◽  
Eldon R. Rene ◽  
...  

Large-scale nature-based solutions (NBS) contribute to the change in large-scale landscapes and ecosystems for which continuous monitoring activities would be necessary to reflect the constantly changing environment. To fill the gap in the design-making process of implementing NBS, a framework that incorporates the landscape dynamics into the design of NBS is expedient and beneficial. This research addresses the above gap and presents a practically applicable framework for large-scale NBS that incorporates landscape dynamics into the design of NBS. To amplify the power of stakeholders’ involvement and evidence-based knowledge (i.e., field experiences and literature reports), the framework developed in this study was evaluated on a case-study site in Odense area, Denmark, within the EU-funded RECONECT project. Furthermore, this study also addresses the relationship between landscape dynamics and biodiversity by performing a detailed literature review. The results obtained from this work demonstrate that the framework developed can be applied to existing large-scale NBS and it has the potential to recommend guidelines during the planning and design step of large-scale NBS.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J Madison

Assessments of the relationship among law, innovation, and economic growth often begin with one or more propositions of law or law practice and predict how changes might affect innovation or business practice. This approach is problematic when applied to questions of regional economic development, because historic and contemporary local conditions vary considerably. This paper takes a different tack. It takes a snapshot of one recovering post-industrial economy, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. For most of the 20th century, Pittsburgh's steelmakers were leading examples worldwide of American economic prowess. Pittsburgh was so vibrant with industry that a late 19th century travel writer called Pittsburgh "hell with the lid taken off," and he meant that as a compliment. In the early 1980s, however, Pittsburgh's steel economy collapsed, a victim of changing worldwide demand for steel and the industry's inflexible commitment to a large-scale integrated production model. As the steel industry collapsed, the Pittsburgh region collapsed, too. Unemployment in some parts of the Pittsburgh region peaked at 20%. More than 100,000 manufacturing jobs disappeared. Tens of thousands of residents moved away annually. Over the last 30 years, Pittsburgh has slowly recovered, building a new economy that balances limited manufacturing with a broad range of high quality services. In 2009, President Barack Obama took note of the region's rebirth by selecting the city to host a summit of the Group of 20 (G-20) finance ministers. The paper describes the characteristics of Pittsburgh today and measures the state of its renewal. It considers the extent, if any, to which law and the legal system have contributed to Pittsburgh's modern success, and it identifies lessons that this Pittsburgh case study might offer for other recovering and transitioning post-industrial regions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-261
Author(s):  
Julie Vinck ◽  
Wim Van Lancker

For parents with disabled children labour market participation is difficult since these children require care that exceeds typical parental care. At the same time, disabled children often live in families who belong to social categories that are associated with lower employment probabilities. However, the intersection between disability and social categories is hitherto overlooked in the literature. Drawing on a case study of Belgium, this article empirically examines to what extent parental employment is explained by the child’s disability and/or the family’s social disadvantages. For this, unique and large-scale register data are used. The results show that (1) childhood disability overlapped with social disadvantages; (2) childhood disability inhibited parental employment; but (3) the relationship differed by social category: for single parents, parents with low educational qualifications, and parents having multiple disabled children, disability and social disadvantage reinforced each other.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-21
Author(s):  
Kris Scheerlinck

Urban transformation is directly related to the planning, design and use of a series of urban infrastructures, from streets to highways, from pedestrian, bicycle, bus or train lines and their connecting transport hubs to rivers, canals or harbor facilities. They play an essential role in the transformation of the urban fabric. Recent societal changes, especially in developing countries, demanding higher mobility and urban interaction, influence the used planning and design strategies to transform or extend urbanized areas by planning or renewing these infrastructures. However, its relationship to the surrounding urban fabric, more specifically the collective spaces it constitutes at the level of the streetscape, is not always an initial or integral part of providing these infrastructures. In many cases, the urban fabric is wrapped around or fragmented by these infrastructural projects, causing scale contrasts and struggle to integrate within, generating processes of misappropriation or misuse. Especially in developing contexts, new infrastructures are often planned and built in a fast way, rarely considering the qualities of the existing urban fabric. During the last decades, research on planning and design models related to the building or integrating of urban infrastructures has been developed and tested via specialised disciplinary approaches to produce insights on the relationship urban infrastructures have with the surrounding urban fabric (Secchi, 2013; Hasan, et. al. 2010; Shannon and Smets, 2009; De Maulder, 2008; Hillier, 1996;). However, additional in-depth research is needed to achieve critical insights on the relationship of infrastructures and their direct environments, starting from their constituent streetscapes - considering the level of the street that defines the perception and use by the inhabitants at an intermediate scale. This paper focuses on an ongoing research project in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), where different visions and models of urban growth are at stake (Figure 1). The recent increase of (foreign) investment in major infrastructures, changes the city's streetscapes drastically. This large scale and formal approach of installing high speed trains, Light Rail Transit's (LRT) or expanded highways and ring roads, to stimulate urban growth, contrasts with the daily routines of the proper citizens that move around by walking or by means of mini buses, both adding to the informal qualities of the city's streetscapes. Within this multi-centred capital, the location of built and planned housing projects, commercial centres, administrative or commercial high rises is studied in relation to the present infrastructural axes and questions models of proximity, accessibility and permeability. Keywords: Streetscapes, High Speed Trains, LRT, Addis Ababa, Infrastructure


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Marta Andhov ◽  
Bergþór Bergsson

 From 2018, it became mandatory to obtain the Icelandic Equal Pay Standard (ÍST85) for all companies with 25+ employees annually operating on the Icelandic market. It has been unclear to what extent – if any – the ÍST85 can be applied in public procurements. This article analyses whether the ÍST85 is compliant with the relevant European Union internal market law, particularly public procurement law. The growing intensity of nudges to include and verify social elements in public procurements can be observed throughout the EU. The analysis of the Islandic case study bears relevance as it can be applied to the EU Member States and other EEA/EFTA States, contemplating similar approaches in their procurements. Section 1 introduces ÍST85. Section 2 analyses the relationship between EEA and EU law, showcasing that this article's analytical outcomes provide lessons applicable beyond Iceland. Section 3 examines how equal pay is regulated under EU law. Section 4 conducts an internal market analysis of ÍST85 compliance by examining the Treaties provisions on free movement. Section 5 introduces the EU public procurement law and examines ÍST85 compliance with Directive 2014/24/EU. Section 6 tests the application of ÍST85 to the Posted Workers Directive. Section 7 concludes the article. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 627 ◽  
pp. A27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin-Long Xu ◽  
Annie Zavagno ◽  
Naiping Yu ◽  
Xiao-Lan Liu ◽  
Ye Xu ◽  
...  

Aims. We aim to investigate the impact of the ionized radiation from the M 16 H II region on the surrounding molecular cloud and on its hosted star formation. Methods. To present comprehensive multi-wavelength observations towards the M 16 H II region, we used new CO data and existing infrared, optical, and submillimeter data. The 12CO J = 1−0, 13CO J = 1−0, and C18O J = 1−0 data were obtained with the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) 13.7 m radio telescope. To trace massive clumps and extract young stellar objects (YSOs) associated with the M 16 H II region, we used the ATLASGAL and GLIMPSE I catalogs, respectively. Results. From CO data, we discern a large-scale filament with three velocity components. Because these three components overlap with each other in both velocity and space, the filament may be made of three layers. The M 16 ionized gas interacts with the large-scale filament and has reshaped its structure. In the large-scale filament, we find 51 compact cores from the ATLASGAL catalog, 20 of them being quiescent. The mean excitation temperature of these cores is 22.5 K, while this is 22.2 K for the quiescent cores. This high temperature observed for the quiescent cores suggests that the cores may be heated by M 16 and do not experience internal heating from sources in the cores. Through the relationship between the mass and radius of these cores, we obtain that 45% of all the cores are massive enough to potentially form massive stars. Compared with the thermal motion, the turbulence created by the nonthermal motion is responsible for the core formation. For the pillars observed towards M 16, the H II region may give rise to the strong turbulence.


Author(s):  
Juliano Pereira ◽  
João Paulo Bittencourt ◽  
Silvia Pereira de Castro Casa Nova ◽  
Alexandre Ardichvili

This case study focuses on a large-scale change faced by SOMOS, the largest K-12 educational platform in Brazil. In 2015, the company acquired Saraiva, a traditional family-owned publishing house with a strong portfolio of services in the K-12 sector as well as a significant share of the higher education market sector. The authors have chosen an episodic narrative to describe two relevant events within organizational change. Six episodes of change were presented, each focusing on specific and related points. They document and map the process of integration of the two organizations, describing the main challenges, critical milestones, and outcomes from each episode. They reflect on whether the evidence-based approach, used to develop the organizational change interventions, was successful in bringing people together during this critical transition.


Author(s):  
Elsabet Tamrat ◽  
Malcolm Smith

AbstractThe concept of widespread “telecommuting” in a community envisages the presence of large numbers of employees who, instead of commuting to work, perform either all or a significant fraction of their tasks at home. It is widely accepted that large-scale adoption of telecommuting is just a matter of time in those countries with the necessary telecommunications infrastructure.This paper reports on the conduct of a telecommuting project in a large Australian organisation. The data and the analyses demonstrate that, overall, the telecommuting project has been successful and brought benefits to both the employees and the organisation. The results also indicate the presence of strong positive links between the relationship/interactions telecommuters had with their supervisors, and the telecommuters' perception both of their own productivity, and their levels of satisfaction with the telecommuting experience. The tasks which telecommuters performed were also related to the employees' perception of productivity and job satisfaction.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-60
Author(s):  
Yixiong Huang

In 2003, the EU and China established a strategic partnership intended to deepen their bilateral relationship not only economically, but also strategically. However, the EU-China relations are still challenged by several ideological and strategic issues. This paper will evaluate the EU-China’s strategic partnership by presenting a case study of the EU’s arms embargo against China since the 1989 Tiananmen Incident. This paper will argue that although the EU-China’s strategic partnership has a strong foundation of bilateral economic and strategic cooperation, the relationship between the EU and China is still very weak: (1) ideologically, the EU is still unsatisfied with China’s human rights record and political reform process; and (2) strategically, the United States (U.S.) still plays an influential role the EU’s external decision-making process. 


Hipertext.net ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 105-114
Author(s):  
Roger Soler i Martí ◽  
Mariona Ferrer-Fons ◽  
Ludovic Terren

The lockdown imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak as well as the resulting surge in the use of digital technologies and social media for activism or social life all represent a unique opportunity to study the relationship between online and offline activism. To do so, we focus on the Barcelona branch of Fridays For Future, the recent and global youth climate movement that expanded through social networks and organised several large-scale global protests. Based on data from Fridays For Future-Barcelona’s Twitter account, the analysis looks at and compares the level of activity and interactions during normal times and during the lockdown. The results suggest a close and mutually-reinforcing relationship between offline and online activism, with peaks of Twitter activity and interactions usually revolving around offline protest actions. They also show that the lockdown period was characterised by an increase in the number of tweets but a decrease in the number of interactions and thus in the repercussion of the movement on social networks.


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