Applying a participatory methodology to evaluate ecosystem services in the Pampa biome: lessons learned from the Tessa methodology in Uruguay

Identifying and measuring ecosystem services involving local stakeholders has been characterised as a novel approach in the literature. This article describes the methodology used in the participatory workshops, the lessons learned, and the specific results of applying the Tessa method. The methodology was piloted with 56 researchers and technicians, more than 22 institutions, and 54 livestock producers involved with the grassland conservation initiative, Alianza del Pastizal. Identified change agents with the most significant impact include the absence of a rural workforce, the lack of family succession, and weeding and overgrazing of grasslands. The primary ecosystem services identified included the production of fodder, meat/wool, wildlife forage, way of life/culture, and medicinal plants. The methodology presented here is replicable, capable of expansion to more groups, contributes to a better understanding, by the producers, of their problems and points to the need for the development of public incentive policies.

Subsidy and Environmental Tax for Construction and Demolition Waste Recycling

In recent two decades, construction and demolition (C&D) waste is becoming a major source for municipal waste which causes serious damage to the environment. To solve the problem, waste recycling measures are gradually used to turn waste into treasures. Meanwhile, several kinds of policies such as waste disposal charging fees have been issued to stimulate stakeholders’ behavior to take waste recycling measures to promote the C&D waste recycling industry. However, the C&D waste recycling rate is still too low in China. In order to promote C&D waste recycling industrial development, this paper is aiming at introducing subsidy and environmental tax policies to promote C&D waste recycling. Based on system dynamics, this study establishes a model to determine the proper subsidy and environmental tax range. According to the simulation results, three kinds of incentive policies are obtained, namely, single subsidy policy, single environmental tax and combined incentive policies. Optimal single subsidy and environmental tax are in the interval [10, 30] and [20, 60], respectively. The best combination strategy is subsidy=10 yuan /ton and environmental tax=20 yuan/ton. The results from this paper could be a foundation for government to establish incentive policies to promote C&D waste recycling.

Public Transport in Rural Roads: Measures to Increase Its Modal Share in Iran

The supply and demand management of rural public transport has gained an important place in Iran, given its decreasing trend over the last decade. Accordingly, an effective approach is to analyze stakeholders’ opinions in this field to identify the effective local solutions for increasing the share of this transport method. The used methodology was to design a mixed questionnaire, a part of which included fuzzy pairwise comparison, while, in its first layer, the variables were classified using rotary analysis. In the other two sections of the questionnaire, the respondents were asked to express their opinions regarding the questions in the form of qualitative and words cloud. According to the inquiries made from the users in 20 selected terminals of Iran providing services to more than 85% of rural passengers, the indicators were weighted and divided into two groups based on the rotary analysis. The weighted results obtained from the users’ opinions revealed that the safety, dynamics of incentive policies, and traffic system performance in the rural transport had the highest effects on the micro- and macro-level indicators. In the second section, based on the qualitative questions, a multivariate linear estimation model of the number of rural passengers was constructed. Moreover, in the third section, the users’ suggested keywords focused on policy-making, travel time optimization, quality of services, and safety. Both the second and third sections had an acceptable agreement with the pairwise comparisons. Given the vast area of Iran and the distance between the population centers in the country, the obtained solutions to increase the share of public rural road transport included reducing the desirability of travel with private cars in short rural distances through interaction with industrial towns around metropolises, along with providing such areas with special services to attract passengers to rural transport with occupational goals.

Life Cycle Assessment of Free-Floating Bike Sharing on Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Case Study in Nanjing, China

The free-floating bike sharing (FFBS) system appears in the form of low-carbon transport mode. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method to analyze the environmental impact of FFBS but has rarely considered the trip chain if the intermodal transport modes were employed. This paper proposes a mathematical formalization of LCA in response to the trip chain. The environmental benefit of FFBS was analyzed by this method considering the production, use, operation, and disposal phases in Nanjing. An online survey was conducted to analyze the mechanism of modal shift influenced by FFBS. The results showed that most respondents only use FFBS in the trip, with savings of 63.726 g CO2-eq/p·km, mainly shifting from lower-emission modes (28.30% from bus, 14.86% from metro, and 33.97% from non-motorized modes), while the trip mode of connecting public transport with FFBS could better replace the motorized transport trip and generate better low-carbon benefits with savings of 300.718 g CO2-eq/p·km. One FFBS should be used for at least 227 days to generate positive environmental benefits based on the current number of FFBS and the assumption of the utilization of each bike, which is once a day on average. The research results can effectively support the environmental benefit analysis of FFBS, the subsequent planning based on the low-carbon concept, and the implementation of relevant incentive policies.

Vertical forest: green open space alternative in urban area development

Addressing environmental problems in urban areas, the Law No. 26 of 2007 has mandated local governments to preserve Green Open Space (GOS) covering minimum 30% of its area. However, some local governments barely meet this obligation due to high price of lands and budget constraints. Meanwhile, an innovation in the form of vertical forest started to be applied in developed countries may be adopted to overcome the limited land constraint for developing GOS. This study was conducted to determine the opportunities for implementing vertical forest as an alternative solution for the constraints. In addition, it also aims to find out the possibility of its application for spatial planning policies so that it supports the national sustainable development goal. This study is an explorative research with qualitative method. The study concluded that vertical forest essentially is suitable to be implemented as an alternative solution to limited land for the GOS development. From the policy perspective, the development of vertical forest can encourage the competitiveness of the green city program. Therefore, the government need to design incentive policies for local governments and the private sectors to develop vertical forest. It is also necessary to adjust GOS developing regulation to become more accommodating so that vertical forest can be recognized as part of GOS.

Analyzing the Effectiveness of Environmental Policies to Reduce Citizens’ Exposure to Air Pollution

Exposure to air pollution causes significant damage to health, which leads to large economic and social welfare losses. As a result, the urgency of reducing PM2.5 levels, the main indicator of citizens’ exposure to air pollution, is gaining importance. PM2.5 is a mixture of solid and liquid particles, smaller than 2.5 micrometers, that are suspended in the air. Most literature on the analysis of environmental policies is measured exclusively in CO2 targets, excluding other measurements of air pollution, and failing to analyze the effectiveness of those policies in terms of citizen exposure to air pollution. This paper reviews relevant literature and offers approaches to reducing citizens’ exposure to air pollution by comparing an Ordinary Least Square (OLS) analysis on the effectiveness of environmental policies to reduce PM2.5 emissions in thirty-three OECD countries between 1990 and 2012, grouped into R&D investment policies, economic incentive policies, and fiscal policies. Moreover, this article presents evidence that not all environmental policies are equally effective at minimizing PM2.5 and highlights successful innovation and economic incentive policies that create opportunities to invest or develop alternative forms of production. In summary, state investment policies in R&D show positive but limited results, university-industry research partnerships show highly positive indirect effects on PM2.5 levels; fiscal policies have counterproductive effects, and among economic incentive policies, only feed-in tariffs present an actual opportunity to reduce PM2.5 emissions. The empirical discoveries presented here diversify the research on environmental policies and have profound political implications. Therefore, this study provides a useful tool for environmental policymakers that aim to cut air pollution levels and reduce the human, social and economic consequences.

Entrepreneurial influencers and influential entrepreneurs: two sides of the same coin

PurposeDrawing on push and pull entrepreneurship theory, this research investigates how and why social media users become social media influencers (SMIs), a specific type of digital entrepreneur.Design/methodology/approachAdopting a phenomenological perspective and following a process approach, a total of 35 semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with SMIs of different ages, follower numbers and associated with diverse areas of expertise. Subsequently, via interpretative analysis of interviewees' narratives and reasons for becoming SMIs, relevant motivations and events were uncovered and described.FindingsThe findings showcase two types of SMIs: “Entrepreneurial Influencers” and “Influential Entrepreneurs”. Their motivations and the path they followed on their entrepreneurial efforts were also uncovered. Finally, based on these findings, a new entrepreneurial motivational driver is proposed.Practical implicationsPublic entrepreneurial incentive policies should consider SMIs as a specific type of would-be entrepreneurs with some advantage in terms of prominence and reputation, which might help them to successfully initiate and consolidate traditional entrepreneurial activities.Originality/valueThis paper is among the first to examine SMIs from an entrepreneurial perspective, contributing to the nascent digital entrepreneurship literature.