scholarly journals A participatory, territory-rooted and change-oriented approach to assess the multi-criteria contribution of an agrifood value chain to sustainable development

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Vayssières ◽  
Alexandre Thévenot ◽  
Ivonne Acosta ◽  
Mathieu Vigne ◽  
Emmanuel Tillard
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Ecosystem Health ◽  
Assessment Methods ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Reunion Island ◽  
Economic Dimension ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Réunion Island ◽  
Resources Conservation ◽  
Methodological Guidelines

Agrifood Value chains (AVCs) can be powerful driving forces for sustainable development. Multi-criteria analysis is particularly useful for supporting decision making on improvement measures in AVCs. Methodological guidelines are still needed to effectively integrate environmental and socio-economical assessment tools and indicators at this level.In this paper, we propose a participatory, territory-rooted and change-oriented framework. The framework is applied to analyse the contribution of the main local poultry AVC in Reunion Island to the sustainable development of the territory. The main stakeholders of the AVC participated in (i) identifying key territory challenges, (ii) selecting corresponding appropriate assessment methods and indicators, (iii) defining the perimeter of the AVC and (iv) the improvement scenarios to be explored, v) providing data inventory, and vi) interpreting the results of the assessment.Both the environmental life cycle assessment and the effect method fit the proposed framework particularly well. They were applied to the same AVC data inventory, improvement scenarios were explored and indicators were spatialized to distinguish the local impacts in the root territory and externalized impacts at the global scale.In the ecological dimension of our case study, most of the effects linked to the AVC activities which threaten resources conservation and ecosystem health are externalized. This is due to strong dependency on foreign resources: in the case of fossil energy and raw materials used for livestock feed, 82% of environmental impacts occur outside Reunion Island. In the socio-economic dimension, the employment created by the AVC is mainly local due to the use of local services, 89% of jobs are provided in Reunion Island. Improvement of on-farm eco-efficiency was shown to be a mitigation option that would significantly affect the impacts of the AVC. Human and ecosystem health, and resources conservation would be improved by respectively +2.2, +9.8 and +4.8,% at global scale. But the AVC industrial network and the community would also be negatively affected, by respectively -2.2 and -3.0%, at local scale. This study underlines trade-offs between the environmental and the socio-economic dimensions and methodological challenges associated with the effective integration of assessment methods originating from diverse disciplines.

Comparison of multi-criteria decision models to approach the trade-off between environmental sustainability and economical viability – a case of nitrogen balance in dairy farming systems in Reunion Island

2008 ◽  
Vol 146 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. ALARY ◽  
M. GOUSSEFF ◽  
U. B. NIDUMOLU
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Dairy Farming ◽  
Reunion Island ◽  
Economic Management ◽  
Animal Management ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Réunion Island ◽  
Decision Making Processes

SUMMARYIn the context of market liberalization and in order to avoid trade distortions, European farmers risk experiencing a restriction of subsidies for market products. Moreover, policy makers cannot underestimate the public concerns about the non-productive functions of agriculture, such as environmental management. The current study illustrates different ways of modelling the trade-offs between environmental sustainability and economic viability for dairy farming systems in Reunion Island. Nitrogen (N) balance at the farm level is the result of complex interactions between pasture and animal management and between bio-technical and socio-economic management. Therefore, different multi-criteria models were tested using a common dynamic bio-economical model that integrated the different sub-systems of the farm and their interactions. Nitrogen excess mitigation in Reunion Island dairy farming systems was used as an illustration of a non-productive objective taken into account in the decision process modelling.The simulations highlighted the necessity to adapt the nitrogen mitigation objective to the technical level of local territories in order to adopt environmentally friendly practices, without jeopardizing the local dairy sector. Moreover, the models generated a different set of solutions that varied according to how non-production functions are integrated in farmers' decision-making processes. This constitutes a relevant basis for discussions between farmers and decision makers.

Bhaktapur Tourism

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-55
Author(s):  
Bharat Prasad Badal
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Gender Equity ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Sustainable Tourism ◽  
Tourism Development ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Economic Dimension ◽  
Sustainable Tourism Development ◽  
One Year

Development in this age of sustainable development is sustainable development itself and tourism development is sustainable development of tourism. The present paper investigates the development of tourism from the socio economic indicators of sustainable tourism of Bhaktapur. Bhaktapur is an open museum and central hub of Tourism. To explore the Economic dimension of Bhaktapur Sustainable Tourism Development through Employment that focuses Number, type and duration of jobs, Gender equity, Business viability, Expenditure, Arrivals, Profitability, and Satisfaction. And to analyze the Social dimension of Bhaktapur Sustainable Tourism Development through Quality of Life that focuses Resident Empowerment, Congestion and crowding, Community attitudes to tourism, Access to amenities, and Changes in crime rate, the study has been conducted. The primary information is based on multiple sources of societal learning like field visits in course of doing researches, observation of various sites, General Household Questionnaire Survey, focus on group discussions, interactive seminars and a number of interactions and interviews with the experts of tourism sector in Bhaktapur. General Household Questionnaire Survey of purposively selected cluster of Dattatraya Square area was conducted on 157 households. Among five clusters Dattatrya Square was purposely selected for the study. Actual spending and length of stay of foreign tourists have been increasing in Nepal. Altogether from socio economic perspective 13 programsare recommended from the study to the local government of Bhaktapur Dattatrya. It needs around265 lakhs and timeline is not more than one year. Five times of these 13 projects and 265 lakhs can double the visitors in coming years.

scholarly journals Current Practices and Future Pathways towards Competencies in Education for Sustainable Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8733
Author(s):  
Gisela Cebrián ◽  
Mercè Junyent ◽  
Ingrid Mulà
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Informal Education ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Group Model ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Competencies Development

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reflects the urgency to embed the principles of education for sustainable development (ESD) into all levels of education. ESD, understood as an integral part of quality education and where all educational institutions, from preschool to higher education and in non-formal and informal education, can and should foster the development of sustainability competencies. This Special Issue entitled “Competencies in Education for Sustainable Development II” responds to this urgency and the papers presented deliver recent developments in the field of sustainability and ESD competencies. They focus on various perspectives: systematic literature reviews and conceptual contributions; curriculum developments and pedagogical approaches to explore competencies’ development, such as action research, serious games, augmented reality, multi-course project-based learning and group model building processes; testing and validation of assessment tools and processes for linking sustainability competencies to employability and quality assurance processes. The contributions show how the field of sustainability and ESD competencies has become a major focus in recent years and present emerging research developments. Further research efforts need to be put into operationalizing sustainability competencies and developing tools that help measure and assess students’ and educators’ competencies development.

scholarly journals Cloud Radar Observations of Diurnal and Seasonal Cloudiness over Reunion Island

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 868
Author(s):  
Jonathan Durand ◽  
Edouard Lees ◽  
Olivier Bousquet ◽  
Julien Delanoë ◽  
François Bonnardot
Keyword(s):  
Sea Breeze ◽  
Satellite System ◽  
Research Infrastructure ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Reunion Island ◽  
Wet Season ◽  
Trade Winds ◽  
Cloud Radar ◽  
Réunion Island ◽  
Global Navigation Satellite

In November 2016, a 95 GHz cloud radar was permanently deployed in Reunion Island to investigate the vertical distribution of tropical clouds and monitor the temporal variability of cloudiness in the frame of the pan-European research infrastructure Aerosol, Clouds and Trace gases Research InfraStructure (ACTRIS). In the present study, reflectivity observations collected during the two first years of operation (2016–2018) of this vertically pointing cloud radar are relied upon to investigate the diurnal and seasonal cycle of cloudiness in the northern part of this island. During the wet season (December–March), cloudiness is particularly pronounced between 1–3 km above sea level (with a frequency of cloud occurrence of 45% between 12:00–19:00 LST) and 8–12 km (with a frequency of cloud occurrence of 15% between 14:00–19:00 LST). During the dry season (June–September), this bimodal vertical mode is no longer observed and the vertical cloud extension is essentially limited to a height of 3 km due to both the drop-in humidity resulting from the northward migration of the ITCZ and the capping effect of the trade winds inversion. The frequency of cloud occurrence is at its maximum between 13:00–18:00 LST, with a probability of 35% at 15 LST near an altitude of 2 km. The analysis of global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-derived weather data also shows that the diurnal cycle of low- (1–3 km) and mid-to-high level (5–10 km) clouds is strongly correlated with the diurnal evolution of tropospheric humidity, suggesting that additional moisture is advected towards the island by the sea breeze regime. The detailed analysis of cloudiness observations collected during the four seasons sampled in 2017 and 2018 also shows substantial differences between the two years, possibly associated with a strong positive Indian Ocean Southern Dipole (IOSD) event extending throughout the year 2017.

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