A Landscape Persistence Assessment of Częstochowa Upland: A Case Study of Ogrodzieniec, Poland

Landscape permanence is understood as the temporal extent of the dominance of a given type of landscape, expressed by the temporal continuity of its use. This issue, already being the subject of much research, is important in proper landscape protection and management. In this paper, spatial landscape persistence and persistence of particular landscape types are presented for the Ogrodzieniec municipality, Częstochowa Upland, Poland. In addition, a background of landscape types and their changes in the Częstochowa Upland has been presented. Based on current and historical topographic maps, landscape types (forest, agriculture, settlement, fortified and industrial) were identified for the following studied periods: 1831, 1944, 1965, 2007, 2014 and 2020. After overlapping the maps, the persistence index was calculated, and isochrones of landscape persistence were determined. The term ‘landscape isochrones’ introduced in this paper is defined as theoretical lines of equal landscape time duration (iso-persistence line). The results show that the landscape of Ogrodzieniec can be considered to be persistent. The largest area of the municipality is occupied by the most permanent landscapes dating from before 1831. The most persistent is the fortified landscape. The method applied is important for planning sustainable development of the region, which is currently under intense tourist and economic pressure.

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The Case Study of the Big Latvian Energy Companies’ Compliance with the Principles of Sustainable Development

International Journal of Energy and Environment ◽

10.46300/91012.2021.15.12 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

pp. 72-76

Author(s):

Raja Kočanova ◽

Ineta Geipele ◽

Kārlis Ketners

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽

Environmental Issues ◽

Business Environment ◽

Energy Market ◽

Adoption And Implementation ◽

The Subject ◽

To Come ◽

Energy Companies

The rationale of the study is connected with the fact that society has increasingly begun to discuss its responsibility to the generation to come. Without economic aspects, social and environmental issues have become increasingly apparent because there is more and more relevant question whether the natural system will be able to withstand the increasing loading associated with human activities. In Latvia there have been made attempts to promote the principle of sustainable development, its adoption and implementation. On the basis of the above stated rationale of the subject, the objective of the study is to estimate the big Latvian energy companies’ compliance with the principles of sustainable development. The reduction of energy sources and their capacity, greenhouse gas emission caused by energy production, and features of the energy market put forward branch enterprises in front of the principle of sustainable development and the idea of its implementation. To determine the big Latvian energy companies’ contribution to sustainable development, in the survey of representatives of the business environment there have been included questions about the big Latvian energy companies’ compliance with the principles of sustainable development. In the research paper there have been used the statistical analysis of data and the processing method.

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Crowdsourcing—A New Paradigm of Organizational Learning of Public Organizations

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10103359 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 3359 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Regina Lenart-Gansiniec ◽

Łukasz Sułkowski

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Organizational Learning ◽

Public Organizations ◽

Subject Area ◽

Typical Case ◽

New Paradigm ◽

Learning Paradigm ◽

The Subject

Increasingly, it is postulated in the literature that crowdsourcing may be important for organizational learning. However, research in this area has only been conducted in the environment of mature and innovative Scandinavian organizations. Researchers omit public organizations in their deliberations. The aim of this article is to empirically identify the importance of crowdsourcing for the organizational learning of municipal offices, and thus to identify crowdsourcing as a new organizational learning paradigm. The considerations carried out to this aim are important because organizational learning is a prerequisite for running contemporary policies and ensuring sustainable development of public organizations. Studies subordinated to the implementation of the goals set were carried out using the analysis of a typical case study. Four municipal offices operating in Poland implementing four types of crowdsourcing according to the division made by J. Howe were chosen for the research object in a purposeful manner. It is worth noting that the results obtained not only confirm, but also complement the postulates in the subject area of knowledge. The implementation of research allows to recognize crowdsourcing as a new and fast developing paradigm of organizational learning.

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The Research on Sustainable Tourism in the Light of Its Paradigms

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11205821 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (20) ◽

pp. 5821 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Małgorzata Kieżel ◽

Paweł Piotrowski ◽

Joanna Wiechoczek

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Quantitative Research ◽

Sustainable Tourism ◽

Case Study Research ◽

Scientific Methodology ◽

Scientific Concept ◽

Observation Methods ◽

The Subject ◽

Functionalist Approach

This study investigates the nature and specificity of the concept of sustainable tourism against the background of the paradigm of sustainable development (with regard to the conditions for the implementation of its practices in Polish conditions). The study assumes the hypothesis that researching sustainable tourism as a category within a new scientific concept—i.e., an emerging paradigm of sustainable development—requires the use of an appropriate scientific methodology. This study, in its essential part, has an overview and theoretical character. A critical analysis of the literature on the subject from books and journals, as well as Internet sources, is used in the study. Documentary and observation methods are applied, and the results of qualitative research based on case study research methodology are presented; thus, the empirical part of the paper has an exploratory nature. Research on sustainable tourism as a category within an emerging paradigm of sustainable development shows that researchers use an appropriate scientific methodology, which is compatible with the interpretive paradigm in the highest degree. In case studies, the research is often limited to the analysis of one example. Due to the prevalence of studies applying qualitative methods, an interpretivist approach is prevalent, while a functionalist approach, associated with quantitative research and model testing, is less frequent.

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Strategies for Creative Tourism Activities in Pandemic Contexts: The Case of the ‘Saídas de Mestre’ Project

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su131910654 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (19) ◽

pp. 10654

Author(s):

Noemi Marujo ◽

Maria do Rosário Borges ◽

Jaime Serra ◽

Rosa Coelho

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Supply And Demand ◽

Small Towns ◽

Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽

International Level ◽

Health Crisis ◽

Depth Analysis ◽

The Subject

The development of creative tourism in small towns in rural areas has been the subject of growing interest and research from different perspectives. As part of the national CREATOUR project, which took place in Portugal over about four years, various organisations with relevant activity in the cultural aspect of creative tourism were analysed, constituting a successful reference at a national and international level. However, since mid-2020, the health crisis owing to the pandemic made it necessary to reflect and work under new circumstances for tourism, in contexts not previously planned for, and at the same time as continuing to champion sustainable development. It is in this context that the present study emerges, the aim of which is to identify organizations’ strategies for adaptation within the scope of creative tourism activities in a pandemic situation. This empirical approach is anchored in the case study of the activities of the ‘Saídas de Mestre’ project based on intangible cultural heritage, using in-depth analysis of strategies developed to mitigate the effects of supply and demand constraints. The results show that there was no disintegration of the supply structure, as planned, due to the fact that creative activities are based on the valorisation of the principles of sustainable development and, therefore, depend on endogenous resources and local agents, who remained accessible.

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Methodology to Analyze the Effectiveness of ESD in a Higher Degree in Education. A Case Study

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12010222 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 222 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Rocío Valderrama-Hernández ◽

Fermín Sánchez-Carracedo ◽

Lucía Alcántara Rubio ◽

Dolores Limón-Domínguez

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Learning Outcomes ◽

Learning Objectives ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

Know How ◽

The Subject ◽

The University ◽

Work Done

This paper presents a methodology to evaluate (1) to what extent students of a higher degree in the field of education acquire sustainability competencies, and (2) to determine whether the subjects that develop Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) achieve their learning objectives. The methodology is applied to a case study. The instruments used are the sustainability survey and the sustainability presence map developed by the EDINSOST project. The survey consists of 18 questions, and has been answered by 104 first-year students and 86 fourth-year students belonging to the Bachelor Degree in Primary Education Teaching at the University of Seville. The Mann-Whitney U test has been used to compare the results of the two students groups, and Cohen’s D has been used to measure the effect size. Students only obtain significant improvements, with 95% confidence, in three questions: Q4 (I know procedures and resources to integrate sustainability in the subjects), Q5 (I analyze the opportunities presented in the subjects to plan educational projects to integrate sustainability) and Q6 (I design educational projects from the perspective of sustainability), all concerning critical thinking and creativity. An improvement is also detected in question Q11 (I know how to develop myself satisfactorily in community educational projects, encouraging participation), with a confidence of 90%. Surprisingly, no subject in the curriculum develops the learning outcomes concerning questions Q4, Q5 and Q6, and only one subject develops the learning outcomes regarding question Q11. However, up to five subjects declare development of the learning outcomes regarding questions in which there is no improvement in student learning. These results suggest that the subjects are failing to reach their ESD learning objectives, and that the students are either trained in sustainability outside the university or the subject learning guides do not reflect the work done by the students throughout their studies.

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Social Design for Services Framework

Conference Proceedings of the Academy for Design Innovation Management ◽

10.33114/adim.2017.89 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Melanie SARANTOU ◽

Satu MIETTINEN

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Research Group ◽

Design Research ◽

Service Design ◽

Social Design ◽

Practical Action ◽

The Social ◽

The World

This paper addresses the fields of social and service design in development contexts, practice-based and constructive design research. A framework for social design for services will be explored through the survey of existing literature, specifically by drawing on eight doctoral theses that were produced by the World Design research group. The work of World Design researcher-designers was guided by a strong ethos of social and service design for development in marginalised communities. The paper also draws on a case study in Namibia and South Africa titled ‘My Dream World’. This case study presents a good example of how the social design for services framework functions in practice during experimentation and research in the field. The social design for services framework transfers the World Design group’s research results into practical action, providing a tool for the facilitation of design and research processes for sustainable development in marginal contexts.

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