scholarly journals Perspective Chapter: Water, Natural Disasters and Socio-Economic Development in the Early 21st Century

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Vaquero Piñeiro ◽  
Paola de Salvo

This chapter investigates the complex relationship between socio-economic development and environmental sustainability by focusing on one of the most vital natural phenomena: the water cycle. Considering the current public awareness of climate change and the growing number of natural disasters, focusing on this topic provides a better understanding of weaknesses and bottlenecks that 21st-century society faces daily. This work presents three case studies, different from each other but conceptually interconnected. The first case concerns the situation of lakes in the world, whose water in many cases is at risk of disappearing. In the second instance, we present the growing socio-economic risks generated by floods. Nowadays, floods play a fundamental role in influencing socio-economic development due to the dislocation of economic activities in Southeast Asian countries. Finally, we discuss desertification affecting large areas of the African continent. One aspect of great interest is the Grande Muraille Verte project promoted by numerous countries. Reforestation of large arid areas is the main issue; the attempt is to support local communities to implement agricultural and livestock activities. Socio-economic and environmental sustainability and resilience are the main challenges that countries, regions and local communities are facing.

2012 ◽  
pp. 226-242
Author(s):  
Divine Odame Appiah ◽  
Francis Kemausuor

This chapter espouses the spatial relationships between energy, environment and socio-economic development, as some of the main challenges African countries are grappling with. Energy is the main driver of all forms of socio-economic activities occurring within the human space over time. In Africa, however, low access to energy has, to a greater extent, hampered the socio-economic development of the continent. Although the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) do not specifically stipulate on any energy target, the realization of all the goals stands threatened if households, commercial and industrial activities do not get the rightful access in terms of availability and affordability to energy systems, including their appropriate conversion technologies. The authors explore the dynamics of energy, socio-economic development and environmental sustainability in a nexus of the triple challenges facing Africa, from different African scenarios. In Africa, the obstacles opposing the continent’s bid to expand the energy frontiers from the traditional sources of wood and fossil fuels into other second and third generation energy forms have been constructed in the areas of intense competition for arable lands for food crops and feed stocks cultivation. Suffice to say that increasing population densities, food shortages and insecurity and malnutrition with associated diseases have culminated into acute forms of poverty in recent years in Africa; the problems have been aggravated by the wanton degradation of the environmental resource base and the over-dependence of particular energy mix at both the rural and the urban settings. The above disposition therefore, militates greatly against the socio-economic efforts of most countries in sub-Saharan Africa. From a systemic perspective, the energy sector which drives almost every sub-sector of the broader socio-economic activity needs to factor the environmental consequences of extraction and use, with the attending impacts of climate variability and change in a vicious cycle of sustainability.


Author(s):  
Divine Odame Appiah ◽  
Francis Kemausuor

This chapter espouses the spatial relationships between energy, environment and socio-economic development, as some of the main challenges African countries are grappling with. Energy is the main driver of all forms of socio-economic activities occurring within the human space over time. In Africa, however, low access to energy has, to a greater extent, hampered the socio-economic development of the continent. Although the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) do not specifically stipulate on any energy target, the realization of all the goals stands threatened if households, commercial and industrial activities do not get the rightful access in terms of availability and affordability to energy systems, including their appropriate conversion technologies. The authors explore the dynamics of energy, socio-economic development and environmental sustainability in a nexus of the triple challenges facing Africa, from different African scenarios. In Africa, the obstacles opposing the continent’s bid to expand the energy frontiers from the traditional sources of wood and fossil fuels into other second and third generation energy forms have been constructed in the areas of intense competition for arable lands for food crops and feed stocks cultivation. Suffice to say that increasing population densities, food shortages and insecurity and malnutrition with associated diseases have culminated into acute forms of poverty in recent years in Africa; the problems have been aggravated by the wanton degradation of the environmental resource base and the over-dependence of particular energy mix at both the rural and the urban settings. The above disposition therefore, militates greatly against the socio-economic efforts of most countries in sub-Saharan Africa. From a systemic perspective, the energy sector which drives almost every sub-sector of the broader socio-economic activity needs to factor the environmental consequences of extraction and use, with the attending impacts of climate variability and change in a vicious cycle of sustainability.


2017 ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
R. О. Kulynych

Studies devoted to economic activities of business enterprises are aimed at finding correlations between various factors and indexes of effectiveness, outlining tendencies, developing economic standards and forecasting. The sustained socio-economic development in Ukraine can be ensured by creating stable market relations through attracting and effective use of foreign investment, deeper integration of industry and science & technology sector, expanding foreign economic activities and more effective utilization of the resource capacities at regional level. This raises the importance of statistical analysis allowing for quantitative and qualitative assessment of the phenomena and processes underlying socio-economic trends in regions, for ranking of the country’s regions and ranking of countries in international comparisons. As a consequence, statistical support becomes increasingly import ant for justifying and making of management decisions on socio-economic development . A statistical approach to justification of management decisions, including socio-economic programs, is developed by use of the method of statistical equations of dependences. Key theses of the method of statistical equations of dependences, developed by Professor O. Kulynych, are set out. This method is extensively used in Ukraine and beyond. It enables for quantitative assessment of correlations and tendencies of phenomena and processes in nature and social life. The main tasks dealt with by the method of statistical equations of dependences are solving direct and inverse problems; finding the intensity of the factors’ impact on the dependent variable; constructing graphs of multiple correlations and finding the weight of a selected factor; analysis of functional dependences and correlations; analytical computations on the basis of numerous and not numerous sets of input data. The main equations of the method that can be solved by software are linear, parabolic, hyperbolic and logical functions, of which a researcher can select the appropriate ones to study a process on the basis of the available parameters and criteria with use of comparison ratios.


Author(s):  
D. Chudy-Hyski ◽  
Michał Żemła

Mountain areas in Poland constitute a special territory with respect to physico-geographical, economic and social aspects. There are specific environmental, economic and cultural conditions, which on one hand restrain and on the other provide chances of these areas development. Environmental conditions involve higher economic costs mainly in agriculture but also in other fields, such as construction or transportation. Other characteristics of these areas include landscape values which just through development of tourism can at least partially recompense the local communities the limited opportunities of gaining incomes. Thus increasing the competitiveness of the tourism product of mountain areas in line with principles of sustainable development remains among the basic topics concerned by local, regional and national authorities, when dealing with socio-economic development of those areas.In order that an individual commune may use tourism as a driving force for local socio-economic development, in the first place there must be conditions favourable for practising various forms of tourism (bases for starting and then intensifying the tourist movement are necessary prerequisites), secondly opportunities must be opened up for creating various enterprises connected with tourism and providing services for tourists, and capable of meeting increased needs of local communities. Conditions (factors) determining mountain communes predisposition for undertaking and realisation of development through tourism may be either of external or internal character.A detailed analysis was conducted in the paper only on the internal conditions. These conditions were analysed considering their diversified character, which was presented as identification of partial conditions, i.e. infrastructural, economic, environmental (natural and anthropogenic) and social conditions characterised by individual diagnostic features.


Author(s):  
Vadim A. Bezverbny ◽  
◽  
Sergey V. Pronichkin ◽  
◽  

The article is devoted to the assessment and forecasting of demographic indicators, gross regional product, employment, labor force and unemployment by industry in the Ryazan region until 2025-2050. The article analyzes the trends in the demographic development of the Ryazan region, including the dynamics of fertility, mortality and migration. The consequences of population aging and the peculiarities of changes in the age and sex structure of the region's population are also considered. To solve the problem of modeling and forecasting, economic and mathematical models have been developed that include the parameters of socio-economic development. The social component is based on a systematic approach to forecasting employment, depending on the anthropogenic load index, which takes into account life expectancy and standard of living, literacy of the population, crime rate, ecological state and other indicators of socio-economic development of the region. The economic component uses econometric analysis by types of economic activities in the Ryazan region, as well as time series analysis to predict employment in both the medium and short term. In terms of the labor market, the labor force is forecasted taking into account the socio-economic effect of hidden unemployment. In conclusion, forecasts are made about the dynamics of unemployment in the Ryazan region and the influence of demographic factors on the formation of the labor force.


Author(s):  
Partho Pratim Seal

Sustainable tourism has been a focus of tourism worldwide. As the hospitality industry is a part of tourism which includes hotels and resorts and contributes a lot towards food and lodging, sustainability is a concern for the industry. Individuals have a perspective that hotelier's relationship toward environmental and societal concerns is rather secluded and intangible. Considering the size and the rapid growth of the hospitality industry, it makes it clear that environmentally sustainable action is essential. For sustainability to be effective, the best way is to engage the people from local communities. The aim is to promote socio-economic development of the tourist destination and the community considering the ecology best cared for by the locals. Tourism has to be developed in a manner so that the ecosystem is conserved with diversification of the economy leading to dispersal of ownership.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-90
Author(s):  
Juan-Luis Klein ◽  
Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay ◽  
Laurent Sauvage ◽  
Leila Ghaffari ◽  
Wilfredo Angulo

This article focuses on cultural and creative activities and the development of local communities. Several studies on North America, Europe and Latin America have shown that this type of activity may have a positive impact on the local economy and living environments, and in particular on the sense of territorial belonging and on relations between citizens. In this text, we propose a reading of the impact of neighborhood cultural initiatives in the context of local socio-economic development based on a set of indicators of the local cultural vitality of a neighborhood. The empirical research was carried out in Montreal, namely on two boroughs: Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie and Sud-Ouest.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
René R. Wijngaard ◽  
Hester Biemans ◽  
Arthur F. Lutz ◽  
Arun B. Shrestha ◽  
Philippus Wester ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra (IGB) river basins provide about 900 million people with water resources used for agricultural, domestic, and industrial purposes. These river basins are marked as climate change hotspot, where climate change is expected to affect monsoon dynamics and the amount of meltwater from snow and ice, and thus the amount of water available. Simultaneously, rapid and continuous population growth, and strong economic development will likely result in a rapid increase in water demand. Since quantification of these future trends is missing, it is rather uncertain how the future South Asian water gap will develop. To this end, we assess the combined impacts of climate change and socio-economic development on future blue water scarcity for the IGB until the end of the 21st century. We apply a coupled modelling approach consisting of the distributed cryospheric-hydrological model SPHY, which simulates current and future upstream water supply, and the hydrology and crop production model LPJmL, which simulates current and future downstream water supply and demand. We force the models with an ensemble of eight representative downscaled General Circulation Models (GCMs) that are selected from the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, and a set of land use and socio-economic scenarios that are consistent with the Shared Socio-economic Pathway (SSP) marker scenarios 1 and 3. The simulation outputs are used to analyse changes in water availability, supply, demand, and scarcity. The outcomes show an increase in surface water availability towards the end of the 21st century, which can mainly be attributed to increases in monsoon precipitation. However, despite the increase surface water availability, the strong socio-economic development and associated increase in water demand will likely lead to an increase in the water gap during the 21st century. This indicates that socio-economic development is the key driver in the evolution of the future South Asian water gap.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 6297-6321 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Reijer Wijngaard ◽  
Hester Biemans ◽  
Arthur Friedrich Lutz ◽  
Arun Bhakta Shrestha ◽  
Philippus Wester ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra (IGB) river basins provide about 900 million people with water resources used for agricultural, domestic, and industrial purposes. These river basins are marked as “climate change hotspots”, where climate change is expected to affect monsoon dynamics and the amount of meltwater from snow and ice, and thus the amount of water available. Simultaneously, rapid and continuous population growth as well as strong economic development will likely result in a rapid increase in water demand. Since quantification of these future trends is missing, it is rather uncertain how the future South Asian water gap will develop. To this end, we assess the combined impacts of climate change and socio-economic development on the future “blue” water gap in the IGB until the end of the 21st century. We apply a coupled modelling approach consisting of the distributed cryospheric–hydrological model SPHY, which simulates current and future upstream water supply, and the hydrology and crop production model LPJmL, which simulates current and future downstream water supply and demand. We force the coupled models with an ensemble of eight representative downscaled general circulation models (GCMs) that are selected from the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, and a set of land use and socio-economic scenarios that are consistent with the shared socio-economic pathway (SSP) marker scenarios 1 and 3. The simulation outputs are used to analyse changes in the water availability, supply, demand, and gap. The outcomes show an increase in surface water availability towards the end of the 21st century, which can mainly be attributed to increases in monsoon precipitation. However, despite the increase in surface water availability, the strong socio-economic development and associated increase in water demand will likely lead to an increase in the water gap during the 21st century. This indicates that socio-economic development is the key driver in the evolution of the future South Asian water gap. The transgression of future environmental flows will likely be limited, with sustained environmental flow requirements during the monsoon season and unmet environmental flow requirements during the low-flow season in the Indus and Ganges river basins.


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